Things we have learned today:

[azurelunatic]

Because my chain of bad decisions is educational and perhaps amusing:

Clean the oven regularly.
Wipe the oven down after cooking that juicy roast.
Check the oven before preheating to bake frozen pizza.
Smoke billowing out of oven vents, not normal.
Smoke out of opened door, ditto.
That box fan is efficient.
Wipe the oven down before commencing auto-cleaning cycle.
Flame in auto-cleaning cycle is not normal.
The locked oven door prevents stupid moves.
In an oxygen-poor environment, the fire must needs go out.
Once a fire has expended all its fuel, it must needs go out.
The cleaning cycle takes a minimum of 2 hours, by which time one's eaten something else.

Comments

[pthalo]

It is true for electric ovens that they need to be regularly cleaned. Gas ovens actually cook better when dirty.