My neighbors house burned down tonite

bivenator · 02-10-2011, 05:15 AM

Almost a year to the day after our house burned, my neighbors house caught fire and burned to the ground. Everyone got out ok except for the dog. Check your self and take precautions.

masraum · 02-10-2011, 05:20 AM

Wow, that really sucks. I saw the thread and thought, "Deja vu! Crap its Biv again, oh no!" Then it clicked, neighbors house. Wow, again that sucks. I don't remember what caused your fire? Two houses right next to each other seems a little weird. Really sucks about the dog.

Neilk · 02-10-2011, 05:50 AM

On the news in the past year, there was a story about electrical panels from the 80s that are of questionable safety after 20+ years. Was your fire electrical? What about theirs?

Something to consider. Poor dog, but glad the rest are safe.

drcoastline · 02-10-2011, 05:51 AM

Wow, that's devastating. Sorry about the dog but alteast the rest are ok.

bivenator · 02-10-2011, 06:12 AM

There have been a number of fires in the 'hood. Some were related to a faulty breaker box that were used in the late 70's early 80's. I don't think our fire was due to the breaker box, rather some wiring. It was speculated in our case that rodents had chewed thru the wire creating a short, but a true cause was never assigned.
It was very cold here last nite and it would seem that the fire was furnace related but that is just speculation at this point.
I was in bed and could see a glow outside my window, as I lay there I thought is was unusual that my garage light was on and flickering. I pulled back the shades and saw my neighbors house flaming. Woke up my wife and kid and got them out as I headed out the door to check on neighbor. They were in the street so I was relieved that they had gotten out.
The house was really involved as you can see by the pictures. Not more than 10 mins had elapsed from me waking to the pictures that you see.
Wow, hands are still kinda shaky. The smell brings back some bad memories from our fire.

A930Rocket · 02-10-2011, 06:20 AM

Nothing worse than a house fire with your lifes posessions in it. I'm glad that everyone made it out ok.

I had a house I was building and a few weeks from completion catch fire. The fire was big and hot, just like the pix above. Burned to the foundation. Tore the footers out and built it again.

vash · vash's Garage

awful!!

what kinda dog? bummer about the pooch..nobody could grab him?

bivenator · 02-10-2011, 08:19 AM

Vash, he was a husky and was in a kennel in the house. The spread of the fire was fast and was pretty intense when the homeowner woke. He had to go out of a window in his bedroom. The other person in the home was covered in soot from his attempts, it was pretty chaotic.
The son was putting a custom stereo in a buddies NSX that was in the driveway. I will post the pics of the car when I get home, its not too pretty.

vash · vash's Garage

wow.

poor dog. so happy the family got out.

fire is my nemesis, and main fear when it comes to cause of death..

bivenator · 02-10-2011, 01:00 PM

Here are some more pics from this morning.

Tobra · Tobra's Garage

The melted NSX looks sort of cool.

Sounds like all the folks in that 'hood need to check their wiring.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Well, we're having the coldest winter in recent memory. I expect many people are using space heaters and are overloading circuits.

RWebb · RWebb's Garage

Sorry to hear about his.

I'll just add that many of us store flammable liquids in our garages -- not just gas in a can, but spray cans, maybe flammable liquids in a glass jar... rags with various things on them... and cars with leaky gas vapor systems.

If the garage is attached to the house....

If you don't have sheetrock up on that old house/attached garage....

bivenator · 02-11-2011, 04:00 PM

The fire started in the fireplace, ironically. The cap on the chimney allowed rain water to eventually erode the mortar around the bricks and firebox. THis exposed the wood frame and the fire burning thru the night (gas) eventually heated the wood to the point of combustion.
Check the caps on your chimney and enjoy the weekend.

A930Rocket · 02-11-2011, 06:01 PM

That's interesting about the wood being exposed due water intrusion. Sounds like it was a prefab fireplace and I would have thought it would have had double or triple wall flue piping.

Unless the wood was at the rafters/roof line, then it makes sense.

Here's the fire at the house I was building.