posted
Well, actually this might more properly go on the flameboard, but...
28 March 1999.
(Just past midnight)
False Alarm
Wife and I had just retired for the night, when the smoke alarm went off. We got up and started to figure out if we needed to exit the house immediately. As I came to the smoke alarm in the hall, I smelled an aroma I, as an electronics technician, am very familiar with: burned insulation. Now we knew what we were looking for.
We immediately began looking for smoke. We couldn't find any, though Wife noticed the smell was strongest near the wall heater in the living room. I checked the computer room, our room and Son's room, and determined there was no fire in there. The smell was strongest in the living room and the kitchen. I felt the walls and ceiling where there might be a fire in the walls, but did not feel any unusual heat.
We called the fire department and explained we smelled an electrical fire, but could find no other evidence of such. They dispatched an engine. While we were waiting for them to arrive, I went outside with a flashlight and looked to see if I could find any smoke. We had checked everywhere we could except the attic. There was no smoke coming from the attic vents, nor any from the various roof vents.
The firemen arrived, and they looked around everywhere we did, then climbed into the attic and checked there. They smelled no smoke in the attic. I remembered that Wife had noticed the smell was strongest near the living room heater and told the firemen. We took the grill off the heater and there was some burned and melted substance inside. At first I guessed there had been something inside the heater that caught fire and burned with enough heat to melt the brazing of the firebox, but on closer examination, we discovered that the substance in question was not metal, but plastic.
Wife was able to identify the burned and melted substance. It was Son's plastic comb!
------------------ HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE: This Product Contains Minute Electrically Charged Particles Moving at Velocities in Excess of Five Hundred Million Miles Per Hour.
[This message was edited by Baloo on March 28, 1999.]
posted
I had a false alarm of sorts this morning. I work the information desk for dorm area on weekend mornings. Well, this morning a huge thunderstorm blew through and UH got the bad end of a lightning strike. The fire panel lit up like a Christmas tree for a couple seconds. It was kinda cool. For two seconds, every floor of every building (including the one where I was working) was reporting a fire. Okay, that's my story.
------------------ "Some people call me the Space Cowboy. Yeah! Some call me the Gangster of Love. Some people call me Maurice. Whoo hoo! 'Cause I speak of the Pompatus of Love!" - Steve Miller Band's The Joker
posted
House repair guy? You have guys who fix entire houses?
"Hello? Yes, my house seems to be broken. Could you come have a look at it? I really can't explain it. It was fine yesterday. But, when I got up this morning, it had just split right down the middle. You wouldn't believe what the birds have done to our floors..."
:-)
------------------ "I fart in your general direction!" -John Cleese, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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