RA Stories: Water and Ramen…Perfect Together

Submitted by an Anonymous RA

SO I have a story that is quite unbelievable.

One Wednesday I was on duty and right before my 9:00 rounds, I get a phone call from the front desk. The desk worker informed me that a resident on the first floor came to her informing her that he had a fire in his room. I immediately ran downstairs to check out the situation.

When I got downstairs, I knocked on the door and the resident answered followed by billowing smoke. I entered the room and asked what had happened. The resident began his recollection of the event.

"I was making ramen, like in the cup, and then it made a funny noise in the microwave so I opened it and it was on fire."

Confused about how anyone could mess up ramen, I asked, "How long did you put it in for?"

The resident assured me it was only in the microwave for 2 minutes. After hearing this, I pondered what else, could there possibly be a flaw the ramen making system? After a minute, I asked the resident "did you put any water in it?"

"Of Course!" he said defensively.

I was stumped. "So let me get this right, you put the ramen, with water, into the microwave for 2 minutes and miraculously it caught on fire?"

After a minute of thought, the resident said, "well, I guess I forgot the water..."

AH Ha! We had found the cause of the fire. I then asked him to tell me what happened next.

"I went into the hall to find my RA."

"You went into the hallway to find your RA to inform him that your microwave was on fire?"

"Yes..."

"Without first putting out the fire..."

"Yeah..."

"Okay... then what?" I said.

"Well, I forgot my keys in my room when I went into the hall so I walked across the street to the front desk to get my lock out key."

"With your microwave still on fire."

"Yeah..."

"Then what happened?"

"Well, I got back here and put out the fire then you showed up."

Oh My Goodness. I literally couldn't believe it. I was shocked and humored and I didn't know how to react. I wanted to laugh, but that would be unprofessional....

Then, I asked him where the microwave was when it caught on fire. He said it was on the ground. That alone is a fire hazard. Catching it on fire doesn’t really lessen that.

I told him that he should find a new place to put his microwave and he should be more careful about the details when it came to making ramen.

An interesting case for our disciplinary system.

Potentially dangerous situation, however funny to retell.