An emergency call for firefighters to respond to a traffic crash ended in a cautionary tale for everyone who cooks food when the firefighters got a second call to put out a fire — back at their own station house in Waipahu.

"The firefighters (at the station) are very chagrined about it," fire Capt. Terry Seelig said yesterday.

But the embarrassment of the firefighters from the Waipahu station is being used as a lesson to underscore the dangers of leaving food unattended on a hot stove, one of the more common causes of building fires on O'ahu, Seelig said.

"It goes to show that no one is immune," he said.

Just before 4 p.m. on May 22, firefighters from the Waipahu station left their food cooking to respond to a traffic crash, Seelig said.

They wrapped up their work at the scene of the vehicle crash when another call came in to respond to a fire at their station, Seelig said.

"The fire's cause was attributed to unattended cooking," Seelig said. "We, like everybody else, need to be careful and attentive when cooking."

The fire caused approximately $25,000 in damage to the Waipahu fire station, mostly from smoke and heat in the kitchen, Seelig.

The kitchen already had been scheduled for renovation, Seelig said, and the damage has since been repaired.

It's not unusual for firefighters to have their cooking interrupted by emergency calls. But after the fire at the Waipahu station, Seelig said, a reminder was issued to all O'ahu fire stations to make sure that firefighters turn off cooking equipment when responding to emergencies.