By ROB HOELL PIX News At Ten

6:17 p.m. EDT, August 17, 2009
NEW YORK (WPIX)—
It's a burning feature you don't want for your cell phone or your oven.

According to Andrei Melnikov, whenever his cell phone starts to ring, his oven magically comes to life, firing up at full blast.

"I was shocked," he said, when he first happened. As bizarre as it is, it is downright scary.

Last week when Melnikov answered his phone he heard a couple of beeps, but didn't think much of it. Moments later he smelled smoke. A thermometer he left in the oven began to burn. The problem was, Melnikov wasn't cooking or planning to.

Much to his surprise, his oven was cranking on hi-broil.

"Nobody knows what could happen because nobody expects a stove to turn on," he said.

If it wasn't for the burning thermometer, Melnikov says he would have left for the rest of the day, with his oven pumping out 500 degree heat.

Dumbfounded, he remembered the beeps after his phone rang and wondered if an incoming call could have possibly triggered the oven. In order to test his theory out, he dialed his cell phone and sure enough his oven kicked on high.

"One feet away it works every time, you put it 3 or 4 feet away it works sometimes."

Maytag, the oven's maker, inspected Melnikov's oven Monday morning.

By phone a technician told PIX News, it's the first time they've ever had a complaint like this, and that the chances of a cell phone and a digital control panel on a stove sharing the same frequency is extremely unusual.

"They're going to install some small parts inside, its called a suppressor, and it should suppress the interference from other devices." said Melnikov.

He was told it would be 7 to 10 business days before the oven can be fixed, so you can only imagine he'll be eating out. As a precaution, he's unplugging the stove and turning off the gas, just to make sure his cell phone doesn't decides to call the oven.