Fire!!!

[steven c newman]

Last night, a fire got started either in or by a trash can in an upstairs bedroom....Landlord had the detectors hard wired, but never installed. Raced up the stairs three times. 1) to find out WHAT the smoke was from,2) Find something to carry up the stairs with water in it ( water glass) 3) third attempt with a large picther...never made it. Too much heat, way too much smoke..

Inside of my nose was black...

Exposed skin was sooty ( about like a Smoked Ham?)

Checked at the local ER

Damage from fire was mainly to that bedroom, first glass had knocked down the waist high flames( a lucky shot?) water damage from the firefighters. maybe $12K damages to this rental I call home. Red Cross put us up for the night, and is working with us. Everyone else is fine, except for that idiot carrying the glass of water.

Wife called 911, fire department is just two blocks away.....

We also provided the neighborhood with some late night (2300 hours) entertainment. Not quite the "Block Party" I would have wanted, though
Fun times wasn't had by all...

[Mike Wilkins]

Glad to hear you did not receive any serious injuries.
As an insurance claim specialist, I have seen my share of injuries or worse from a fire that got out of control. Good call on the fire dept.
Happy you are here to see another day.

[Bruce Page]

Glad you and your family are OK!

[Raymond Fries]

Glad everyone is OK. Most things can be replaced.

Take care...

[John Lanciani]

Just a question, not a condemnation; did you not have a fire extingusher in the house? (I keep a 5lb ABC extinguisher on every floor of my home.) Any idea yet what caused the fire?

[steven c newman]

No yet. Fire ex. was MIA at the time. Never again
There are a couple clues though..
IMAG0198.jpg
This was where the flames were. had to travel up these, in the smoke with the water
IMAG0199.jpg
Three times. Was able to "land" enough ON the flames to knock themdown....then the smoke got real bad..
IMAG0201.jpg
That waste basket was sitting where that un-touched chair is. Had to kick the door open
On the third trip up, got to a doorway to the other bedroom, right at the top of them stairs
IMAG0205.jpg
Ah, yeah. made sure everyone was out, then I left, one step ahead of the city cop. Fire department was just getting there...

[Pat Barry]

Glad to hear no one was seriously hurt. None the less, was the cause identified? ie:, spontaneous combustion, cigarette butt, electric malfunction, ??? By the way, thanks to your post here I managed to find my extinguisher. Its 20 yrs old, is still showing OK. I'm thinking its probably not dependable. Anyone know if these can be tested?

[Frederick Skelly]

Man, that's pretty scary. Glad you came through it OK!
Fred

[paul cottingham]

Glad to hear you and yours are ok!

Are are your tools ok? :-)

[steven c newman]

LOL, yep..tools are fine.

Starting to think that the kid that rented a room from me, dumped his dope pipe out into the waste basket.....When one needs a torch to light up? There's two up in the kid's room.


Kicked my son's dpoor open to see what was burning....flames were about waist high then. That first glass of water was aimed right at the flames....Didn't see any flames after that, but LOTS of heat and blinding smoke.

Later, looked meself over, I looked like I had slid down a chimney....Exposed skin was sooty as all get out. Including the inside of the nose....still coughing crap up...

If it weren't for that lucky shot with the water....the entire front upper story would have burned down before the Fire trucks could have pulled up. Wasn't time to think, just react..FAST. Get them out of the house, call 911, and make a fight out of it.

Insurance guy will be here Thursday morning. Het, we even made the front page of the local papers...

Thanks for the kind thoughts..

[Rick Potter]

Pat,

No way I would trust that extinguisher after 20 years. First, the dial is probably stuck, and second, if it is a dry powder, the powder has settled and caked. Why don't you use it for practice, but first, turn it upside down and give it a spanking with a rubber hammer to loosen the powder.

Then go get a new one.

PS: I have a couple water pressure extinguishers in the shop. Use it once a year for practice and refill at the water hose, and compressor. They shoot about 30 feet. Note: this is for home use, commercial use requires professional check annually.

[Mark Blatter]

[QUOTE=Rick Potter;2446611]Pat,

No way I would trust that extinguisher after 20 years. First, the dial is probably stuck, and second, if it is a dry powder, the powder has settled and caked. Why don't you use it for practice, but first, turn it upside down and give it a spanking with a rubber hammer to loosen the powder.

Then go get a new one.

PS: I have a couple water pressure extinguishers in the shop. Use it once a year for practice and refill at the water hose, and compressor. They shoot about 30 feet. Note: this is for home use, commercial use requires professional check annually.[/QUOTE

+1 on the fire ext. There is a reason commercial locations are required to have them inspected.

When I was in high school we had a compressed air water extinguisher too. I used to 'test' it late at night while driving around with friends. Yep, they will shoot about 25 - 30 feet, even from a moving car. Had lots of fun, until that one night when I was followed home by a nice officer who talked to my dad about how I was using it. How does that song go, something like having fun until your Daddy takes the T-bird away?

[steven c newman]

Insurance guy just left, and the contractors, and the landlord..
One room will be gutted out. The other two rooms up there need cleaned and repainted. One of which has a small roof leak.

Couple of days before they can start...Monday or so.

One glass of water saved the whole house......

[Jim Koepke]

Glad to here you are okay.

Get rid of any smoker of anything that thinks it is good to empty their pipes or ashtrays into the trash. You don't want to be killed by someone else's stupidity.

jtk

I don't even want to die of my own stupidity.

[steven c newman]

Changed a couple locks on the doors tonight....

Most of my son's electronic stuff still works! Except for his laptop. Screen won't come on. It is getting power, just no screen coming up. It WAS sitting right under the only window in the room, too. Both were across the room from the"main event".