Candle warning.

I went to visit a friend the other day and catch up on what has gone on in our lives since we hadn't seen each other in several months. He informed me that he had had a fire in the kitchen. When I asked what had happened he told me of the actions which caused this unusual outcome. My friend "D" has three cats in the house. One loves to sleep on the stove because of the warmth of the pilot lights. My friend placed a candle in the way to maybe detour the lounging feline. Apparently the lite candle was nudged on top of one of the pilots that was burning just under the surface of the stove by one of his furry housemates. The candle was burning but hadn't melted the top of the wax very much but the pilot light under the candle had melted the wax in the bottom of the jar. The pressure of the melted wax was growing and growing like a bomb without any ones awareness until a slight whistle was heard. My friend went to investigate the noise and was going to put out the candle when the thing blew up. The melted wax finally found a path though the not yet melted wax on top of it in the container. The pressure pushed the wax out of the container at such a force that it caused the wax to aerosol into small particles which in turn caught fire by the lite candle. The flaming candle wax exploded all over the ceiling and the kitchen cabinets. Luckily my friend was far enough away from it to not get any on him. With what looked like 1/4th of the kitchen on fire he decided to retreat and grabbed a kitty under each arm and headed for the door. One of the cats was by the door when he got there so he kicked it out the door as he tossed them outside to safety. When he ran back inside to see what he could do or maybe call the fire department and to his amazement the fire was out. The only sign of a fire was the blackened dust on the cabinets and ceiling. He was very lucky and it could have been a lot worse than how it turned out. Word to the wise, never burn a candle on the top of your stove.