Firefighters squelch smoldering disaster  -A A +A By Carol A.
Clark  The mouth-watering aroma of supper simmering on the stove
turned acrid when a forgotten pot began to smolder and nearly
burst into flames Friday in an apartment on 11th Street.Los
Alamos Fire Marshall Michael Thompson described the sequence of
events that lead to near disaster for the apartment owner and
surrounding neighbors at about 3:30 p.m. Friday.“He put the food
in the pot to start cooking and went to another part of the
apartment,” Thompson said. “After a while, he remembered
something at work and left the apartment through a door that was
away from the kitchen. The water eventually evaporated in the
pot and the food began to burn.”Luckily, a neighbor smelled
smoke in the hallway of the apartment building and called it in,
Thompson said.Los Alamos police opened the apartment door to the
vacant apartment and firefighters removed the smoldering pan and
ventilated the space. “Fortunately, it was caught in time,”
Thompson said.Fires from