Saw this in the morning news feed. What are people thinking?!? WTOP: Apartment fire near Dulles Airport caused by discarded fireplace ashes. Apartment fire near Dulles Airport caused by discarded fireplace ashes | WTOP
This is also unbelievable from the article. "The cause of the fire was determined to be improperly discarded fireplace ashes, an accident, according to fire investigators." That was not an accident unless you call stupid an accident.
with stories like these, I always wonder about people’s general level of attention to things. What I mean is, I recall going to a party one time. This person had this really cool house with like three fireplaces in a very old house. The one thing I really noticed was that he hadSeriously about a foot deep of a bed of ash on each hearth. Can’t imagine that’s about anything other than laziness. I remember thinking that you could probably have Life members a week after you had your last fire with that type of set up. That, and I think that people also grossly underestimate how long you can have live embers for. In Shoulder season, I sometimes point out alive embers to my wife in the insert after we haven’t had a fire for a couple days and she always seems mystified.
Happens quite often. I have a char mark on my siding and deck from a girl who thought it would be nice to clean out my fireplace ashes while I was at work. People unaccustomed to fire just don’t know. As a young mason my father sent me on a small job. Install a woodstove through a concrete wall of a fairly new house. I knew the job, wasn’t inexperienced but one of the first times it was all on me. Within a month my dad says “remember the house you installed the wood stove in? It burned down”. Needless to say I had to change my underwear. Turns out they had taken the hot ashes, put them in a plastic bucket and left them on a stack of newspaper in their garage. And the Ct contingency should remember this tragedy The Heartbreaking Details From That Christmas Day Fire in Connecticut
No they put the ashes in a plastic bucket on newspapers in the garage. It certainly did wake me up further as to the responsibility of being in a business where it’s your job to safely exhaust fire out of someone’s home. Wouldn’t want that on my conscious.
My bad. I read it but didnt register upstairs. Thought that was the reason for the fire in the attachment. Not enough coffee in me yet!
Know all about the coffee. To confess I did learn earlier. About 17 years old. Had a “fort” which was a small barn I converted. Had electric, phone, and a decent stereo in it. Plus my dirt bike. Decided to build and install a woodstove in it. Metal 35 gallon drum for the stove. Dad asked me if I know what I’m doing, gave him the affirmative. It burned down. Dad wasnt happy. Not sure if it was the stove and install or some of my friends tossing cigarette butts around. Was a wild party that night. Either way I learned a lesson from that.
Happens often. Someone i know did it. Put the ashes in a cardboard box and put them in the trashcan. Burned up the can.
