FIRE!

[DJD]

Well it's around 1am this morning and I'm laying in bed and I hear the neighbors outside having fun at their birthday bash or so I thought. Apparently she was yelling for help hanging out her 2nd story window because her house was on fire! Like I said I been hearing loud voices and car doors slamming for hours as folks were leaving and talking so I thought the inaudible loud voices was just more folks saying good night.
I heard a big truck come down the street and thought something is up and bout that time I see lights flashing through my window. I get dressed and head out and man there is smoke everywhere! They had her on the ground checking her out because she did jump out the window. I counted 6 fire department pump trucks, 4 police cars and an ambulance. I walked around to the back yard and could see the kitchen blazing away....I mean the kinda stuff you see in the movies. I'm talking drapes, counter top stuff and anything that could burn was fueling the fire. They put the fire out but the smoke was billowing out of any hole or crack in the house. I watched for about an hour and once the smoke diminished they started the chainsaw! I saw siding and insulation falling on the ground as they opened the attic up to check for smoldering areas.
I had maxx out this morning and their front yard has the burnt stove(brand new...as in Friday) and a pile of insulation and siding. The back yard has glass and burnt kitchen stuff piled up.

[coombro]

Wow DJD just lets you know how small a world we live in. Anything can happen anywhere at anytime.

[DJD]

Yep gotta be careful at all times. Watch those Christmas trees, lights and candles!!!

[MsgMills]

man you said it, I have a sister who lost everything they owned one year on X-Mas Eve night one year in a fire.....Lights caught the x-mas tree on fire, from what the fire dept. told her.

[coombro]

Those lights really have me spooked when my wife loads that tree up. Now with the cooler burning led's. Can also plug a lot more together without fear of overloading. They cost more yet are quite safer.

[DJD]

Looks like the prelim investigation says the new gas stove location is where the fire started. The kitchen is trashed and will need some major demo to get that burnt smell out of the house.
What I find very odd is that the burned up stove was placed outside in the yard along with the drywall, insulation and trash and now it's gone. One of the roaming junk collectors picked it up last night. People do some strange things.

[bassin_bug]

I bought one of those fancy electric stoves and was all excited to see the first result of heating the top units. There was an electrical flash and, fortunately for the installer and me, it blew the breaker. When the stove was taken apart, they found that the factory had run a screw through a 220v wire. After that, I wonder how many homes have been burned from the stove and the fire department wrote it up as a cooking fire.

[Big Gills]

I think fire is one of those tragedies that scares me the most. I mean you could get caught in the house and die and what a horrible death or you escape and lose a loved one or all survive and have absolutely nothing left that you spend your hard earned dollars on which are your valuables and memories. Its like being stipped clean and have to start your life all over again. Never been in one but can only imagine how difficult they are. feel bad for your neighbours Don and for all those losing their homes just before Christmas.

[DJD]

A large part of my work is designing Fire Alarm Systems and being involved with several building codes and ADA guidelines. It's something I take serious and includes alot of responsibility on me and the company I work for.
I think people who are not involved with construction would be surprised at how much money is spent on these systems is colleges, hospitals and correctional institutions. IMO it's sad at how many homes are ill equipped to protect the loved ones and property. The use of the cheapest smoke detector is a bad move. Most homes are installed with ionization smokes which react to fast smokeless fires quicker than smoldering fires. Most home fires have alot of smoke and a photoelectric smoke responds sooooo much faster to smoldering smoke producing fires....but since ion smoke usually cost 1/3 of what a photo smoke costs that's what gets installed. I don't have any ions in my house.
Also if you can tie your smokes to a security system that is monitored by a UL Listed service i would recommend it.....so if your not home or your a hard sleeper the monitoring station will call the fire department when they receive that code from your system.