beeping sound around carroll and 6th Ave?

We had this problem when we lived on Carroll and 8th several years back. Beeping every 20 seconds or so, went on forever. Finally, we determined it was coming from a downstairs neighbor's apartment when we began to smell an acrid, burning plastic smell. Turns out that they had gone on vacation and left the oven on! The beeping was some kind of timer on the oven malfunctioning as the plastic control panel melted away. Our slumlord wouldn't believe us when we said we were afraid the building was in danger.