What (Not) To Do When The Pilot Light Goes Out

I pulled the Thanksgiving turkey carcass out of the freezer today, to make stock. I tossed it in a pot with some onions, carrots, parsnip, celery, apple cores, rosemary, and parsley. Filled the pot with water. Went to turn on the burner.

Nothing.

Everything came off the stovetop while I checked the pilot light. It was out. Fortunately, I thought, the other one was lit. I lowered the stovetop while I went to get something to transfer the flame. When I came back, they were both out. Apparently, I didn't set the stovetop down gently enough.

Sigh.

It was at this point that I realized that - strangely - we didn't have much in the way of fire-making devices in the house. When we moved in August, we tried to leave the combustibles behind (lighters + August heat + all our worldly belongings = uncomfortable risk). Since then, I haven't bought matches and, Angela hasn't gotten a propane tank for her torch.

So... no obvious fire source. What about extreme heat? That might light the pilot light... we have a heat gun and some soldering irons...

Before I got too committed with flameless methods, I realized we had a toaster. A bit of a paper towel around a bamboo skewer made for a reasonable (if ill-advised) torch. That worked.