Narrative:

Not long after the captain asked for his meal to be put in we started smelling an odor that we normally associate with a food container getting hot and smoking. The captain called back to make sure the flight attendant was addressing the problem since the smell was getting stronger fairly quickly. The flight attendant said that one of the ovens got very hot and that she called the other flight attendant up for assistance. She seemed like she had it under control. A couple minutes later we heard a fire extinguisher discharge and that got our attention. Since the flight attendants were too busy to keep us informed we decided to send back a jumpseating dispatcher to give us a quick update. He went back but after a minute of so of not hearing from him we decided that I would go back. We got the dispatcher back in the cockpit and I went to the cabin. I immediately noticed the a flight attendant's eyes were very red. She informed me that the coil in the oven was bright red and that smoke was coming from the oven. I assumed the coil was normal and that as we suspected the food was too close to the coil and the container was starting to smoke. She then said that she grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the fire. I knew that sometime people are a little loose with words and that she was flustered so I asked specifically if there was an actual fire in the oven. She responded with 'well there was about to be'. That indicated to me that there was no fire but that our previous assumption was more than likely correct and that perhaps the oven itself was damaged and getting too hot. I told the flight attendant to wash her eyes out immediately and I went back into the cockpit and proceeded to tell the captain everything that I found out. I also told him that I felt he should go back and see what he thinks. While the captain was in the back I contacted dispatch to get medical on the line for the flight attendant since her eyes did not look good. The captain came back in the cockpit while dispatch was getting medical. While waiting; we quickly agreed that the smell had come from an overheating oven and he informed me that he had pulled the breaker. Medical came on line and the captain talked to him while I handled radios and flew the plane. After telling medical the number that was on the fire extinguisher they informed him that we should get her medical care. We decided to divert. I called center and I started in that direction. The captain stayed on the radio while I proceeded via vectors. We had to hurry the descent but landed uneventfully. I never declared an emergency nor did I ask for emergency response vehicles top meet us. Dispatch had told us that they would handle the emergency response. We pulled into the gate and deplaned the passengers and flight attendants.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 diverted to the nearest suitable airport when a galley oven overheated. A flight attendant discharged a fire extinguisher and suffered some ocular discomfort.

Narrative: Not long after the Captain asked for his meal to be put in we started smelling an odor that we normally associate with a food container getting hot and smoking. The Captain called back to make sure the Flight Attendant was addressing the problem since the smell was getting stronger fairly quickly. The Flight Attendant said that one of the ovens got very hot and that she called the other Flight Attendant up for assistance. She seemed like she had it under control. A couple minutes later we heard a fire extinguisher discharge and that got our attention. Since the flight attendants were too busy to keep us informed we decided to send back a jumpseating Dispatcher to give us a quick update. He went back but after a minute of so of not hearing from him we decided that I would go back. We got the Dispatcher back in the cockpit and I went to the cabin. I immediately noticed the A Flight Attendant's eyes were very red. She informed me that the coil in the oven was bright red and that smoke was coming from the oven. I assumed the coil was normal and that as we suspected the food was too close to the coil and the container was starting to smoke. She then said that she grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the fire. I knew that sometime people are a little loose with words and that she was flustered so I asked specifically if there was an actual fire in the oven. She responded with 'well there was about to be'. That indicated to me that there was no fire but that our previous assumption was more than likely correct and that perhaps the oven itself was damaged and getting too hot. I told the Flight Attendant to wash her eyes out immediately and I went back into the cockpit and proceeded to tell the Captain everything that I found out. I also told him that I felt he should go back and see what he thinks. While the Captain was in the back I contacted Dispatch to get medical on the line for the Flight Attendant since her eyes did not look good. The Captain came back in the cockpit while Dispatch was getting medical. While waiting; we quickly agreed that the smell had come from an overheating oven and he informed me that he had pulled the breaker. Medical came on line and the Captain talked to him while I handled radios and flew the plane. After telling medical the number that was on the fire extinguisher they informed him that we should get her medical care. We decided to divert. I called Center and I started in that direction. The Captain stayed on the radio while I proceeded via vectors. We had to hurry the descent but landed uneventfully. I never declared an emergency nor did I ask for emergency response vehicles top meet us. Dispatch had told us that they would handle the emergency response. We pulled into the gate and deplaned the passengers and flight attendants.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.