Firefighters rushed to the aid of a woman who could not get into her kitchen to turn off the hob she had been cooking on.
They arrived at Cuffley Court, Woodhall Farm, at about 2.45pm today – and discovered that the handle of the door to the room had been jammed in one position.
The woman could not get it down to get in – and had potatoes cooking on the other side.
Hemel Hempstead fire crew commander Michael Probet said: “It was just the internal door that had jammed shut, so we just had to push the door and then it came open.
“We are a bit stronger, so we leaned on it a bit more and it just popped open.
“It could have been a lot worse if we had not got there when we did.”