Today I was at work and had really bad cramps so I decided to warm up some tea to help them. I could either heat the tea up in a styrofoam cup, or my thermos, and I KNOW you can't put styrofoam in the microwave, so I used my thermos. I put it in the microwave for three minutes, then went out onto the salesfloor while I was waiting for it. All of a sudden my manager and I smelled rubber burning and had no idea where it was coming from, we just noticed it smelled under all the ceiling vents. So I walked the back of the store, didn't smell it, and she called the mall security. I go back to get my tea, and I found it spilled out of the microwave, so I open the microwave and luckily there were no flames, but you could tell there was flames because it was covered in black smoke dust. The bottom of my thermos was melted (it had rubber on it) so that was why we smelled it so strong in the store, we figured it went through the vents. From that point on people would come in our store and leave just because it smelled so bad! I'm just so thankful that the fire only stayed in the microwave and didn't spread, I can't imagine what would've happened if it spread into the break area, or the rest of the store
I can't imagine how bad it was because I didn't actually see it, but from the inside of the microwave you could tell it wasn't good. I guess it's a miracle that it didn't spread?
Now my manager said she's going to never let me live this down, and my other co-workers are already teasing me about it!