Well. that was Not a Pleasant evening.

For a long time we've known that Dominic had a fixation on flames, and did not leave pans on the gas stove unattended unless we had to, you know, make a bathroom run, answer the phone, answer the door, etc etc.  Life happens.  I've also found evidence of him ripping leaves off the spider plant and putting them into the flames to watch them burn (evidence being burned bits of leaves on my stovetop).  So we do our BEST to not leave the kitchen unattended.  

Last night, i had just put my fresh spaghetti sauce (good use of garden tomatoes) in the pot and set it on low and ran to the bathroom before i needed to start boiling water.   When i came out, no less than 4 minutes later, i saw Dominic trying to shove a flaming toy snake into his toy chest (a lifesize, plastic extremely flammable toy snake).Grabbed the snake, threw it in the sink.  Removed flaming plastic bits from stove.  Fire out.    He burned himself a little tiny bit (3 burns, none larger than half the size of my pinkie fingernail) - and not badly. I've done much worse to myself cooking.  You would've thought the world was ending from the drama that ensued

He is apparently what other ASD parents refer to as a first aid refuser.  I could NOT get him to put either his thumb or his forearm into water.  The best I could do for immediate first aid was to get him to press a vinegar soaked paper towel onto the worst of the burns (inside his forearm) which he clutched to his torso the remainder of the evening. Before he went to bed I did manage to get a nice layer of calendula gel onto the burns, and this morning there is no redness left, and the tiny spots that had blistered are well on their way to healing.  So he's fine.

BUT

He could've been seriously injured.  he could've burned the house down.  It could've been AWFUL.

My first inclination is that the gas stove has to go and we need to buy one with an electric range.   I did some googling and we couldn't pull that off (with delivery, install and haul away old gas stove... plus capping off the gas, etc) for under $1000.   We just can't do that right now, not with me probably having sinus surgery next month (and not having reached my deductible yet).  Which means I'm going to be turning off entirely anything on the stove if I have to leave the kitchen for any reason while Dominic is awake.  Fun times.  If anyone wants to know what I want for my birthday in a few weeks, it'd be an electric range (ha, i know)

edited to add // with much research I've decided what i REALLY want is an Electric Induction stove - the kind that works off of a magnet so the top doesn't even get hot to touch..  Of course, being new technology, these are currently stupid expensive, BUT its going to the top of our tax refund list.;..