For many New Yorkers an oven is the place where you store winter clothes, extra aluminum foil and maybe some back issues of The New Yorker you aim to get to later. But some people actually use them (and their stoves), and get very unhappy if they are removed! Also, litigious. Meet Beverly Taki, 66, and her husband Louis Maione, 68, who, the Post reports, are now suing their old Park Avenue co-op board and management company after the gas to their commercial-size, six-burner double oven was inexplicably turned off for nearly ten months. They're looking for $27,000 to make up for the takeout and restaurant meals they say they were forced to consume while they waited. more ›

An elderly woman died yesterday after she tried to use her stove to warm her Lower East Side apartment and inadvertently set herself on fire. Widow Claudette Rivera, 72, allegedly turned to her stove for warmth because her second-floor apartment on Ludlow St. had no heat or hot water. Neighbors heard her screams and tried to help her as her clothes caught fire, flames engulfed her body, and smoke filled the hallways. Firefighters were able to put the fire out quickly, and no one else was injured. Adrian Cutner, 65, who was her neighbor for over 30 years, called Rivera a "very, very nice lady," and told the News, "She went up like a candle...It's a classic New York story." more ›

A Brooklyn man can't sleep at night knowing that the bizarre inter-gadget relationship between his Sony Erickson PDA and his Maytag Magic Chef stove might leave him burned. Last Monday Andrei Melnikov discovered that his cellphone was turning on his stove when he got a call in the kitchen. The phone had been on the kitchen counter when it rang, and as he answered it and walked away, he recalls hearing a faint beep. Minutes later, he smelled smoke, and discovered that some plastic cookware left in the oven was on fire. The incoming call had somehow turned the broiler on high, a phenomenon which Melnikov demonstrated for his landlord and 1010WINS. They believe this is the first time this has happened in the three years since Melnikov has owned the stove and the phone, but since neither device is talking, nobody really knows how long this hot affair's been going on. Melnikov and his girlfriend have put a stop to it by unplugging the oven, and they're afraid to plug it back in because of their pet chinchillas. Maytag is sending someone to "fix" the problem, but will the lonely old Maytag man really have the heart to stand in the way of such fiery passion? more ›

Who do you sue when you get badly burned after lighting your cigarette with a stove's burner? Well, if you're Staten Island resident Joel Lederman, you'll sue Macy's because it sold a dangerous shirt. more ›

The Brooklyn fire that killed FDNY Lt. John H. Martinson was caused by a six-year-old child who was playing with wrapping or packaging paper over the open flames of a stove left on to heat a 14th floor apartment. When the paper caught fire, the boy attempted to hide the smoldering paper under a mattress, trailing embers throughout the apartment. When the child's mother discovered the bedroom in flames, she grabbed the six-year-old and his twin brother and fled from the building. The door to the apartment was left open, however, allowing billowing smoke to fill the hallway. more ›