House afire
So, have you ever been woken up by sirens, looked out the window, seen gobs of fire trucks, and then realized that your neighbor's house is on fire? When I opened the front door I saw smoke pouring out of the house across the street from ours and flames in the front room where there used to be a window.
Yikes.
It took them about 30 minutes to mostly have the fire out. They were worried about the old cellulose insulation in the attic. The fire burned through the exterior wall in the room where it started, and of course there's tons of smoke damage and more from the firefighters doing their fire fighting.
Neighbor was not home but another neighbor called him. Tim and I went out to talk with him when he returned, and the poor man was shaking and bewildered. I offered him a cup of tea--"hot tea?"--and he said yes and just hugged me. So, tea we made and sat with him and talked for awhile. Fire inspector Mike came over and sat and asked a bunch of questions to help figure out the cause of the fire while the other inspector looked at the house, then they would compare notes. The various trucks began to leave and people quit gathering in front of my house.
We eventually had to go do some stuff. Mike left his card on our mailbox and wrote thanks, which I thought was awfully nice of him. Our neighbor's girlfriend came and helped him load a bunch of stuff out of the house, and we told him we'd keep an eye on things. The insurance company sent a crew to board up the house.
Neighbor had gone out for breakfast and the fire started a few minutes after he left. There was an old power strip, apparently, that had been slowly going faulty and building up problems for some time.
Change your old power strips, please!
Yikes.
It took them about 30 minutes to mostly have the fire out. They were worried about the old cellulose insulation in the attic. The fire burned through the exterior wall in the room where it started, and of course there's tons of smoke damage and more from the firefighters doing their fire fighting.
Neighbor was not home but another neighbor called him. Tim and I went out to talk with him when he returned, and the poor man was shaking and bewildered. I offered him a cup of tea--"hot tea?"--and he said yes and just hugged me. So, tea we made and sat with him and talked for awhile. Fire inspector Mike came over and sat and asked a bunch of questions to help figure out the cause of the fire while the other inspector looked at the house, then they would compare notes. The various trucks began to leave and people quit gathering in front of my house.
We eventually had to go do some stuff. Mike left his card on our mailbox and wrote thanks, which I thought was awfully nice of him. Our neighbor's girlfriend came and helped him load a bunch of stuff out of the house, and we told him we'd keep an eye on things. The insurance company sent a crew to board up the house.
Neighbor had gone out for breakfast and the fire started a few minutes after he left. There was an old power strip, apparently, that had been slowly going faulty and building up problems for some time.
Change your old power strips, please!