Kitchen safety 101

I had a little accident in the kitchen this morning.

Here's a picture of my stove.

The tea kettle and the Dutch oven are always on it because I use the kettle every morning the Dutch oven nearly every night. There's no use putting them away.

I decided to boil water for tea, so I moved the kettle to the front left-side burner, turned it on and walked away. Just as I'm wondering why it isn't whistling yet, I smell something burning.

Yes, I had turned on the back left-hand burner instead, scorching the bottom of the Dutch oven, which had been burning, empty, for 10 minutes.

There was a moment of panic. I turned the stove off, grabbed two potholders and tried to lift the Dutch oven off the burner, but it wouldn't budge. I then filled a large bowl with cold water, dumped it in and watched as it immediately sizzled and evaporated away. I did that two more times before dumping all the ice from the freezer into the Dutch oven. I was then able to life it to a cool burner.

I wish I could say this was the first time I've done this, but sadly it's happened before. The Dutch oven was still usable afterwards, but I'm not sure of it is durable enough to withstand two kitchen calamities. I know what I'll be asking Scott and the kids to get me for Mother's Day this year!