Lucky to be alive today

[infernalis]

I know it's way off topic, but as I sit here still very shaken felt compelled to share.

This morning my sleep was disturbed by a strange noise, very faint and hard to tell what or where it was. I nearly put the pillow over my head and ignored it.

Decided to get up, and found a kitchen appliance (the blender) malfunctioning on the counter, fire dancing from the front!!!

The sound I was hearing was the motor running, RPM fluctuating up and down. from the bedroom it sounded more like a fish tank filter that had lost it's priming.

I have fans in the windows now for the last 40 minutes and the stink of electrical fire still will not go away.

The thoughts of my whole family and some 75 animals burning up in a house fire will not go away any time soon.:(:(:(

[drache]

I just wanted to post: Whew!
and with all the spaces, it wouldn't let me do it

glad you caught that before it spread

[Lori P]

Oh Wayne. That's my biggest fear... house fire... who to start saving first?? I'd loose my mind and probably my life, I couldn't live with the guilt of the ones I couldn't save. HUGS!!! I'm very glad you're safe!!!!!!!!

As an aside... we actually did have a kitchen fire once, several years ago, brought on by me trying to cook. lol I'd left a pot of water to boil and promptly forgot it. Do you know all those stories about dogs that save their owners from fires? Yeah? Well let me tell you something-- it's crap. LOL Fifteen farthin' dogs in this house and not ONE of them made a sound. I was asleep on the sofa and thank god hubby came in!!!! So here's the image for you:

Hubby starts yelling and rushes into the kitchen. I jump up and start racing blindly about, throwing open doors and windows. Hubby is still yelling "Call 911! Call 911!" as I continue to run in circles thru the house. Dogs are joyfully racing after me, barking. Hubby hurls entire stove out the back door and stomps out the fire, continuing to yell the above. I'm still running around, accomplishing nothing, as I can't figure out who to grab. Dogs are having the time of their life. I finally fling water on the cabinets. Hubby had to call 911.

To this day, Jamie tells the story of the day his wife set water on fire.

[infernalis]

Our dog "Ace" never even woke up!

[anji1971]

Oh my God, Lori!! You really are something...........I'm trying to express my concern for Wayne, and I'm laughing too damned hard at your story!!:D

Wayne, I'm so glad you didn't decide to cover your head with a pillow and keep sleeping. It makes me shudder to think what could have happened. What a close call.........:eek:

[infernalis]

Lori, thanks for the uplifting moment:) I needed that right now:D

All unused appliances, unplugged!!! never again will the toaster or anything like that have power unless it is in use.

I suspect that the cat may have been up on the counter and stepped on the buttons???

[Stefan-A]

Good story, Lori. :D

Wayne, your cat may be trying to kill you. ;)

[anji1971]

Cats are all secretly plotting to kill us and take over the world. They just look cute to fool us.;)

[crzy_kevo]

i would suspect the cat
but im glad your ok wayne without you who would i have to talk to lol

[count dewclaw]

Wow, glad all of you are ok Wayne. What a way to wake up! :eek: Good thing you woke up when you did.

[enigma200316]

hey Wayne glad to hear your alright mate.........lets hope nothing like this ever happens again.........;)

[Aundrea]

WOW Wayne glad that your ok and your family and pets!! Thats a lot of pets to get outta the house. :eek:

Lori LOL Im sorry but that was so damn funny LOL Im glad tho that your all ok. I sure would freak out. I dont think my beagle dog would wake me up. She may howl at the fire but not get me up and save me LOL

[zooplan]

I´m happy that you will still be able to enjoy the forum.
We have fire alarms in each room of our appartment except the kitchen.
I´ve made them to shout severel times only by the art of cooking:D
Then I had to jump to the ceiling to get them off again, verey time it hapend I felt like in the movie "Rainman".
I hate it but my wife need the feeling of more savety.:rolleyes:

[Gijs & Sabine]

That's a scary experience, Wayne :eek:
Very glad you're alright and your family and animals as well ofcourse.

[jitami]

Wayne! So glad you decided to get up and check out that noise! How scary!

Lori... too funny... again, tho, glad hubby came home and everything turned out fine :)

[Hornets23]

Wow, thats scary Wayne....but glad you heard it before things got more serious.

[infernalis]

That awful smell still lingers!

Judging by how hot the blender was, it had been running for hours.

Since mechanical switches cannot just engage themselves, the ONLY reasonable conclusion was the cat had been on the counter while we were asleep.

Since we have this thread going, I would also like to offer some friendly advice, those new "Eco bulbs" the spiral fluorescent ones, well they don't just simply quit working like the old fashion incandescent bulbs do, when they fail, they will sometimes start smoking, and melt the plastic base.

Have had 2 of them fail that way, so never leave them on unless you are in the same room:(

We also lost the house 15 years ago due to failure in an aquarium appliance, so light hoods and filters should be replaced every few years, the condensation from the fish water collects inside these electrical appliances, and can short them out.

Thank you everyone for your concern, it was very scary.

Now please feel free to share with us any related experiences, it may prove usefull in prevention of a future tragedy.

[Snake lover 3-25]

wow that's crazy wayne!!! glad you're alright!!!!

i have set the microwave on fire too many times to count i tent to accidentally leave things in with my food..... tinfoil..... sparkly plates.... silverware..... and who knows what else!!!!!

[ssssnakeluvr]

glad you are all ok wayne!!!! hmmm....could be the cat....I catch mine on the counter a lot....conniving little critters..LOL!!!

speaking of setting water on fire....my mom was getting a pan of water boiling for macaroni noodles years ago....she had apparently spilled something on the burner and hadn't noticed it. when she turned the burner on high to boil th e water, whatever was on the burner started smoking real bad and set off the smoke detector. we have teased mom for years about her cooking being so bad she could burn water!!!! :rolleyes:

[infernalis]

The burning water reminds me of once when I was a kid, Grandma had no clue, she boiled water and mixed it with Nestle quick powder, served it as cocoa, the picture on the front of the can shows hot cocoa, but she never read the instructions to use hot milk!

http://www.danceswithreptiles.com/1fun/1yuk.gif

[Sid]

Wayne, very glad you, the family and all critters are OK and the blender is the only casulity. I'm sure it was a terrifing ordeal to say the least.

[infernalis]

Wayne, very glad you, the family and all critters are OK and the blender is the only casulity. I'm sure it was a terrifing ordeal to say the least.

Thanks Sid..

Scared me more how close I was to ignoring it, it was only like 5:00 am and I usually don't get up till 6.

We sleep with the radio on (My brain is hyper active, and without a distraction, I just lay there thinking all night) At first I thought it was FM static on the radio, Then I switched it off, the noise was still there.

Finally decided to get up, I opened the bedroom door and it was a bit louder, yet still I thought one of the aquarium filters had lost prime.

I walked down the hallway and started noticing the smell, and it was definitely coming from the kitchen. The fire was dancing around under the speed selection keys!!! I grabbed the cord and yanked it out, then promptly chucked the blender out the back door!

Been burning a scented candle all day to try and drive that melted motor smell out of the house........

Thankfully it was making noise!! most electrical malfunctions are silent.

[GartersRock]

Oh my god Wayne!! I am so glad you are ok!! AHH! This kind of stuff really freaks me out...

[drache]

fire can be really really scary when it's right in front of you and taller
I once almost burned down a friend's house and possibly an entire canyon community by accident - and I was wide awake
the friend I was house-sitting for had a small wooden cottage with a wood-stove for heat in a canyon filled with dry sagebrush and manzanita and other dry stuff
it was one of those rectangular free standing ones, with the pipe coming out one end, a door with a little ledge in front at the other end and two round iron plates set into the top, that could be lifted out with a handle one inserted
anyway
I was poking around inside to rearrange things and accidentally jammed a largish log onto the bottom of one of the iron plates and it fell into the stove, basically opening up half of the top of the stove, with the sudden updraft making the flames shoot up to the wooden roof
by the time I was done fixing that mess, I was shaking and unable to stand
taught me a lot about the stove that came in handy when I spent the following winter living in a yurt with a smaller version of the same thing

thankfully I've never actually experienced my house with all my stuff burning up

a friend had that happen though and it was due to a heat lamp accident

[GartersRock]

Wow... I am so scared of fire...

[Snake lover 3-25]

my friend had a heat lamp over a group of baby chicks and it started a fire burning down the entire 2nd story of her house.....

[Charlet_2007]

I've been thu a house fire before.. 3 years ago this June 27th to be exact..

The fire started not 10 feet from where my daughter was sleeping in her crib.. and in the computer room in the cornor where my 9 foot albino burm was and our 150g tank with my 23 inch long pacu.. the house was built back in 1920 so you can imagine how fast it went up...

I have pics if anyone wants to see them.. we was awake it was 9:00 pm it started in the computer room electric fire.. I was back in the computer room when the phone rang it was for aaorn jenna was in her crib asleep aaron was out in the grage with his friend fixing his car when i handed him the phone..

No more then i handed the phone to him the only smoke detector we had at the time because we had just moved in and hadn't got done unpacking some boxes when it off (it was in a box stuffed in a closet totally on the other side of the house the farest away from the fire and it still went off.) I looked at aaron hes like whats that im like i dont knwo and ran to see if jenna was alright..

When I got to the front room it looked hazie not smokie but i couldnt see to good.. I thought it was just me and then i came to jennas room the whole room was coved in smoke.. I couldn't even see her.. so walking in to her room I wouldnt even know where she was if i hadnt knowen how her room was set up.. But i saw the fire and knew which way it was going up the wall and back towards the back sliding double doors that was open.. I grabed jenna her blanket and ran..

Came back out to aaron yelled our house is on fire hes like yeah right.. im like no go look.. not the best thing to tell him.. he get to jennas room the fire has all ready engulfed it.. aaron comes back hair singed and trys to call 911 but its already takn the phone the next door nabors come out ask if anyones in there were like no were all out.. seems like it take forever for the fire trucks to get there before they get there it blew 2 transformers..

Now I never herd them go off before i thought we was getting bombed as well when it happend. What the fire didnt take the water and smoke damage did.. The fire fighters I'm guessing found where the house at one time was ran by propane and the one fire fighter found the line and yelled gas line they all ran at the time after everything was going on it was kind of funny watching them all run and knowing its was all electrical in the house lol..

Out of all the animals we had and the house fire we still have the one pleco that lived thu it.. His name is Luky and we've had him for 5 years now.. he's 16 inches long..

[Snake lover 3-25]

wow that's crazy..... so you lost the berm and the pacu???? that stinks.... but i'm glad it was them rather than a family member......

[Charlet_2007]

the burm the pacu the 150g the 125g the snake was in the 125g and the 150g shadders in to peices the size of a nail head.. i had 70+ rats for food for our snake.. we had turtles.. rabbits our momma cat had kittens 7 of them they were gone.. so much losted in like 2 hours..

[Snake lover 3-25]

man that really stinks...... so sorry for your loss:(

[anji1971]

This stuff gives me shudders just reading it.........
I can't even imagine the horror of actually being in a house that catches fire. Too much.

[drache]

wow - that's horrible
glad your family got out, but losing all the animals and probably a lot more must take a lot to get over

[infernalis]

wow - that's horrible
glad your family got out, but losing all the animals and probably a lot more must take a lot to get over


It's been a decade and a half since our total loss fire, and honestly one never really gets completely over it.

All the pictures, diplomas, yearbooks, record collection & family heirlooms passed down for generations.

Just last week we shoveled a bunch of things into a bonfire out back that mom kept in the barn, she could not let go.

But really, scorched furniture, no matter how antique it is, pointless to keep around. (only serves to remind us of the loss)

Sure the insurance bought this wonderful home Dorothy and I inherited when mom passed, but it is not the same house I grew up in...