I don't know why, but this reminds me of a very near disaster when I was younger. I think the main reason I'm good about making sure about the burners being off is because of this.

I was a teenager and with my best friend in high school, we were planning a surprise type birthday party for another friend. I had baked a cake, and was going to make a special icing recipe to top it off with. Well, I turned on a burner (electric stove) to heat it up because I had to boil some ingredients for the icing. Then I got distracted putting some music on the stereo and talking to my friend. I looked up suddenly to see the cake, in a glass cake pan, which I had set on top of the stove, smoking like crazy. I had turned the wrong burner on, and the glass cake pan was sitting on the burner I had turned on.

I ran into the kitchen, but just before I got there, the glass cake pan (9x13) exploded into a million pieces, and a small fire on the stove top erupted. There was a pale of dish water nearby (we didn't have a dishwasher) and I ran across the shards of broken hot glass barefoot to throw it on the fire, cause I was horrified it would catch on the wood cabinets. That did get the fire out. Luckily I only sustained minor cuts on my feet, along with a healthy respect/fear of stove top burners.

To this day, I check them carefully, always making sure I have the right one turned on and turning it off as soon as I'm done with it. The oven is another matter however. I still occasionally forget to turn that off when I take something out. At least that is not quite so dangerous as the stove top.