checking the oven beforehand

For those of you who don't know I live with an awesome 87 year old woman rent free in exchange for kind of taking care of a few things around the house for her and making sure she hasn't fallen down somewhere and been left for days. Well I just discovered a few things... I need to check the oven before I use it. I knew that she used to keep her cast iron pans in there, but since I have been actually using the oven to bake things in she has been putting those away in a different spot. So, naturally because of this I didn't check the oven. But when I opened it to put the bread I was making in I found four or five pancakes..yes pancakes... sitting on the oven rack. lol

The SECOND thing I learned was really valuable; because her oven is old it smokes a bit, I think it needs to be cleaned... anyway, the fire alarm went off; and it kept going off even after I stopped it and opened the doors and fanned the thing...Maxine never woke up (it was around 11pm when I did this) . She did come out of her room while I was fiddling with it, but it was to use the restroom and I asked her if I woke her up and she said she didn't hear a thing. THUS if there is EVER a fire, I will need to rescue Maxine! I probably would have checked on her anyway in the event of a fire, but it is good to know that it is a must.