rickyfins
New member
Some of you may know that I am in the process of moving but today was out of the ordinary right from the beginning.
I was making coffee at 7:30A.M. and when I went to get the sugar and silly hands dropped about a cup or so right on the floor. I knew right then I should have went right back to bed!
I decided after the coffee to check the furnace (coal/wood furnace) to make sure that it was still burning from the night before. It was just fine and only needed a little coal added.
I was later removing some ceiling tiles in the upstairs bathroom and the tile splits into 2 sections one of which hits me in the shoulder which in turn sling shots all the debris off of the tile onto the floor. By the way its contents include the following: mouse poop, nuts, dirt, soot, plaster, paint chips, and last and creepiest a dead squirrel which at the time I thought was alive! It bounced off the ceiling tile and onto the floor and bounced 2 or 3 more times which startled me enough that I almost fell off the edge of the tub!
Again I knew I should call it quits for the day. I didn't even get a chance to clean up that mess when the worst thing that could have happened today happened.
I noticed an odor not usually smelled in a house, at least not in every room.
We have a coal/wood furnace so I have had some experience with chimneys, burning, and all those things. I have had limited experience with house fires but I got it right unfortunately.
I was on the 2nd floor working when I got hot from working(not the fire) and then the smoke and burning wood smell came into the room and it made me want to inspect for some sort of problem somewhere in the house. I had smelled this before but usually someone is burning wood outside somewhere. I just so happened to be burning our house.
I came downstairs and in the dining room on the floor next to the chimney was smoke, fire, and LOTS of HEAT. I immediately had my neighbor who was visiting and looking at the work I was doing call the fire department while I tried frantically to put out the fire. I got buckets and a pry bar and went at this beast head on.
I poured about 30 gals of water on the baseboard and carpet stopping its progression. I then jammed the pry bar into the base board and started to rip at the house. While doing the pulling apart of the house I had to stop a few times and fill buckets again.
This house sits in a rural town of 400 and without a fire department. Needless to say 35mins later they show up with me almost done extinguishing the smoldering house. They were kind enough to cut a hole in my floor and rip apart some things and using small water extinguishers before leaving.
They had a really nice thermal imaging device that showed how hot things were. The darn chimney and baseboards were over 300 degrees F'
Well that was my day, I hope everyone else's was better than mine. I am just so glad that this happened before I moved tanks and it wasn't February.
I didn't get much done today since I spent half the day with the Fire Chief, man he was a nice guy. He is one of those guys you know everyone he knows but you just somehow never met him in your travels knowing all the same people.
At the end of the day I found out that the chimney has a crack that runs through the middle of bricks and spans about an 8 foot section or more and is probably going to need replaced. My work has stopped until the weather breaks because now there isn't any heat. I am going to have to wait until the insurance company comes by to inspect and give the damages before I clean up or rip down what needs to go.
I hope you all have a good day and enjoy reading my day filled with adventure! And to think this all started with a cup or so of Sugar!
I was making coffee at 7:30A.M. and when I went to get the sugar and silly hands dropped about a cup or so right on the floor. I knew right then I should have went right back to bed!
I decided after the coffee to check the furnace (coal/wood furnace) to make sure that it was still burning from the night before. It was just fine and only needed a little coal added.
I was later removing some ceiling tiles in the upstairs bathroom and the tile splits into 2 sections one of which hits me in the shoulder which in turn sling shots all the debris off of the tile onto the floor. By the way its contents include the following: mouse poop, nuts, dirt, soot, plaster, paint chips, and last and creepiest a dead squirrel which at the time I thought was alive! It bounced off the ceiling tile and onto the floor and bounced 2 or 3 more times which startled me enough that I almost fell off the edge of the tub!
Again I knew I should call it quits for the day. I didn't even get a chance to clean up that mess when the worst thing that could have happened today happened.
I noticed an odor not usually smelled in a house, at least not in every room.
We have a coal/wood furnace so I have had some experience with chimneys, burning, and all those things. I have had limited experience with house fires but I got it right unfortunately.
I was on the 2nd floor working when I got hot from working(not the fire) and then the smoke and burning wood smell came into the room and it made me want to inspect for some sort of problem somewhere in the house. I had smelled this before but usually someone is burning wood outside somewhere. I just so happened to be burning our house.
I came downstairs and in the dining room on the floor next to the chimney was smoke, fire, and LOTS of HEAT. I immediately had my neighbor who was visiting and looking at the work I was doing call the fire department while I tried frantically to put out the fire. I got buckets and a pry bar and went at this beast head on.
I poured about 30 gals of water on the baseboard and carpet stopping its progression. I then jammed the pry bar into the base board and started to rip at the house. While doing the pulling apart of the house I had to stop a few times and fill buckets again.
This house sits in a rural town of 400 and without a fire department. Needless to say 35mins later they show up with me almost done extinguishing the smoldering house. They were kind enough to cut a hole in my floor and rip apart some things and using small water extinguishers before leaving.
They had a really nice thermal imaging device that showed how hot things were. The darn chimney and baseboards were over 300 degrees F'
Well that was my day, I hope everyone else's was better than mine. I am just so glad that this happened before I moved tanks and it wasn't February.
I didn't get much done today since I spent half the day with the Fire Chief, man he was a nice guy. He is one of those guys you know everyone he knows but you just somehow never met him in your travels knowing all the same people.
At the end of the day I found out that the chimney has a crack that runs through the middle of bricks and spans about an 8 foot section or more and is probably going to need replaced. My work has stopped until the weather breaks because now there isn't any heat. I am going to have to wait until the insurance company comes by to inspect and give the damages before I clean up or rip down what needs to go.
I hope you all have a good day and enjoy reading my day filled with adventure! And to think this all started with a cup or so of Sugar!
