Why the sudden spike in kitchen fires?
Back in early 2020, when the pandemic first hit, people were coming up with various ways of quickly sanitizing face masks. People even resorted to popping them in the microwave. This resulted in fires, because many masks have that metal strip across the nose. Those trips can create sparks.
People have forgotten about the danger of doing that, and fire departments have renewed their warning against putting masks in the microwave. Besides, there’s no evidence that microwaves kill viruses, and the most effective way to clean masks, is to toss them in the wash.