A Fire

Today I attempted to clean my oven. I have been meaning to do it for quite a while. When I made tandoori chicken the other day and there was sauce burned onto my broiler pan that will not come off with any amount of scrubbing, I decided it was time and I would leave the broiler pan in there to be cleaned too.
I kept forgetting, and each time I preheated the oven I would open it up to find a sizzling hot broiler pan. Eventually I found a day when we would be out of the house and I could turn the oven on to clean (this has to be done while we are out of the house because of the toxic smell) and wrote it on my calendar.
The day was yesterday and even though it was on my calendar I still forgot.

So this morning, I turned the clean cycle and prepared to get the kids out of the house. About 10 minutes later I noticed a FIRE inside my oven. I don't know if this is normal or not -since I am always out of the house when the clean cycle is on - but the black smoke coming out of the oven vents did not look right. I turned off the clean cycle and watched through my LOCKED oven door as the flames kept leaping from the broiler pan. The kids cried and my heart was thumping - how do you put out a fire when the oven door is locked? Eventually the fire ran out of oxygen or fuel or something and died out. My oven is still dirty and my broiler pan is even more uncleanable. Maybe I should just buy another one?