My wife and I did this once. We were preparing chili flakes in oil for a chicken with cucumbers disk. We heated up the oil (perhaps a little too hot) and threw in a half a cup of so of the flakes and seeds of hot chili peppers. A cloud of pepper gas erupted from the pan and soon filled the kitchen, and my wife and I were coughing from the toxic fumes.
What made the incident particularly memorable is that, as the fumes descended to the floor, we heard our poor Siamese cat going, "Cough-cough, cough-cough".
Fortunately, we all recovered.