People… do not take life lightly…

first off…

everyone and everything is ok. I just need to vent…

Spent the day outside playing with the saws and wood piles.

daughter stopped by and got her “daddy hug” that’s she’s been asking me for for sometime.

I put the saws away etc and went to spend about an hour with her.

she left and with enough daylight left…

I went back to the wood pile.

about 15 minutes later, the wife comes out in her t-short with the dogs and waving for me to kill the saw…


she’s telling me the fire alarm upstairs is going off.

I drop the saw, head inside and look for the cause. It’s not apparent right away…

she starts screaming something about “it’s in my room”.


I have for 30 years had a fire extinguisher sitting next to the door in my bedroom. I have no clue why, it’s just there.

I grabbed the fire extinguisher as she’s talking to 911 for the fire department and go to her room….

open the door to seeing 3-4 foot flames from where she’s had a candle burning prior to when my daughter stopped by for New Years.



this was a decorative candle with gold paint and chit on it.

We have 5 fire trucks from the local volunteer fire department show up. Probably 20 fire fighters.

near as we can tell since there was no candle left, even though she’d blown it out, either the paint or something else had stayed lit.

by the way…

dry chemical fire extinguisher tastes like azz…

it could have been an entirely different ending…

Thankfully it wasn’t.


Like I said…

I needed to vent because the wife is feeling horrible enough as it is and I don’t need to add to it. Nothing I say to her will change the situation and I sure don’t need to make matters worse.

 

Thankfully everything and everyone safe.

 

I should add…

other than extremely light smoke damage and a burn spot in the carpeting, no real damage was done to the house

 

I'm so thankful everyone made it thru this ordeal okay, and your right in thinking things could have been very different. I hope you have a safe 2o23!

 

Close call...Glad all turned out okay!

 

I keep a fire extinguisher beside by bedroom door and also in the kitchen as well as the living room…

I guess I’m going to the hardware store tomorrow.


It’s rechargeable sooo.

An 8lb ABC dry chemical. Three quick shots put it out.

 

Benjamin Franklin said many years ago “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

 

There's a number of ways candles can start fires, some not too obvious.
Personally, I like a non-combustable surface under them, especially the ones in glass jars that are so popular these days. We have some that, thankfully, seem to be low on scent, that have covers that may or may not suffocate the hot wax should it re-ignite after the flame is blown out.
Not much of a user of candles but they come in handy when the power goes out. I Just try to be careful with them.
I've always kept a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and anpther in the garage.

 

Thank goodness you didn't get some cowboy volunteer guys drag 1 3/4" line up to your room and spray 500 gallons of water all around and rip out your floor looking for "Hot spots". And I saw that as a Volunteer Fire Fighter!

Seriously though, your lucky and glad to know you had very little damage and it was just a small room contents fire. I also keep random extinguishers around. I try to make a point to remind my wife where they are from time to time as well as remember myself where the few are stashed.

Some I need to get a better spot as there hidden buy junk in a few spots.

 

So glad that everyone is okay and with minimal property damage!

I'm always paranoid about candles. Especially with curious cats around that I didn't teach boundaries (such as staying off of counters). When I had dogs, I had to have candles places where their tails wouldn't hit them. The only place I will put a lit candle is on my pellet stove hopper lid in the living room (not on the hot part of the stove), and even then it has a metal platter under it. I try to limit candle burning to 1/2 hour or less but can totally see how people would forget they were lit.

I NEVER would have thought that an extinguished candle could pose a fire hazard - assuming it didn't fall over onto something flammable right after extinguishing.

 

A little excitement to end the year! Thank God someone was inside to hear that alarm going off.
I once saw a, burning for hours, glass jar candle crack and leak out then the fire went crazy as the wick got exposed.

 

~phew~ Dodged one there.

Keep fresh batteries in those fire/smoke/Carbon monoxide detectors!

Glad to hear it's nothing more than a cleanup.

 

So glad y'all are ok. Also glad not much damage

 

Dang!
Sounds a little too close for comfort.
Glad things turned out as well as they did all things considered.

Thanks for the reminder to be careful.

 

Another thing the wife and I discussed…

we have four dogs. They were yacking and barking and running and going berserk with all the excitement.

we have decided that they are now to be put into a vehicle for safety reasons, as much for the firemen as their own, until it’s over.

 

Invite your daughter over for another hug. And your wife too.

And celebrate your NewYears miracle.

 

Glad you were able to catch it before it got bad!

 

So glad everyone is ok and the damage was minimal. What a close call.