Always leave a timer on when making a stew

I started the chickpeas for tomorrow night's stew while I prepared some a light dinner for myself tonight.  They hadn't quite come to a boil when I was ready to eat, so I left them heating while I parked myself in front of the television while I ate.

Two and a half hours later, having caught up on 30 Rock, The Botany of Desire, and started an old TiVo'd recording of Cars, I smelled the marvelous scent of roasting garbanzos -- warm, rich, nutty -- accompanied an instant later by an odd, deep, burnt smell, like the edges of an old campfire without the ozone and pine scents.  Ack!  Charcoal Stew, not Chickpea Stew!

Unfortunately, the television room is at the end of the air passage in the house.  So the smoke filled and flowed out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the bedrooms, then backed into the living and dining rooms, and finally limped into the television room.  I've been airing the curtains, bedclothes and rugs, washing what I can, and that is helping.  It has been two days now, since the incident, and the burnt smokey smell seems stronger right after the furnace kicks on -- I think the furnace has filtered the soot out, but now it is trapped in the airshaft and the smell gets pushed out and around again.