We interrupt our regularly scheduled renovation updates to tell the story of our first electrical fire. It happened on Friday night, while I was out. So I'll let Aaron explain what happened:
I was in the basement watching Evil Dead 2 (a classic horror movie) when I heard a "ka-chunk" then another "ka-chunk". I paused the movie to listen, didn't heard anything else, and started the movie again. Then I started to hear some very loud "pops". I got up to investigate, thinking maybe it was ice falling down the sides of the house. I went into the laundry room, which is where the sound seemed to be coming from. That's when I saw smoke seeping through the basement ceiling. At this point I yelled "oh my god the house is on fire!" and ran upstairs. I saw the thermostat in the living room with flames coming out behind it, and electricity arcing around the wall.
I ran back downstairs to the electrical panel, which is not clearly labeled. In a frantic effort to cut power to the thermostat I started turning off all the breakers labeled "heater". Then I ran back upstairs, trying to remember what I learned about how to put out an electrical fire. All I could think of was a box of baking soda.
But first I returned to the living room to take the face of the thermostat off so I could get at the screws. I grabbed it and the whole thing melted off the wall into my hands. I threw the thermostat outside and went back to the hole in the wall where there was still a small flame, which I was able to blow out with two breaths. However, I had no idea if the fire was still burning inside the wall.
I went upstairs and could see there was still smoke coming into the bedroom above the living room. I felt all the walls, and couldn't really tell if there was still a fire in the wall so I decided I needed to call someone with expertise in the area of fires. It wasn't an emergency, so I didn't want to call 911. I went to the city's website to look for a non-emergency phone number for the fire department. I found fire station touring information, a number to call if I wanted to book a school visit, but no number to call for a non-emergency fire situation. I called information and explained my house was on fire, but that it wasn't an emergency so I needed the fire department non-emergency number. The operator seemed confused and re-directed me to the police non-emergency line, who then put me through to the fire department non-emergency line.
As soon as I told the fire department operator that I'd had an electrical fire in my house, she asked, "where do you live?" By the time I'd answered a few more questions, a fire truck with five firemen in full gear pulled up to the front of our house. Two of them came in - the veteran with a Tom Selleck mustache asked me a few more questions, while the rookie used a thermal imager to look for heat in the walls. Tom Selleck said, "I'm not an electrician, but this seems dangerous. You might want to hire one." Thankfully they were able to confirm that the fire was out.
After they left, I texted my brother-in law.
I took his advice and grabbed a beer, then went back down to the basement and watched the rest of the movie while I waited for Megan to get home from the opera.As I drove up to the house the first thing I noticed was that every light in the house was on.Then I noticed the charred remains of a thermostat on our front step. And as soon as I walked in the front door I could smell smoke and the distinct smell of burnt plastic. Then I saw this.
I'm sure there was panic in my voice when I called out to ask if Aaron was home. He sauntered upstairs with a beer still in hand and asked if I wanted to relocate to a hotel for the night, as the smell of burnt plastic was making him feel a little lightheaded, and the bedrooms upstairs were still smokey. I agreed, as the smell was making me feel a bit nauseous, and it didn't seem like a good idea to expose the baby to toxic burnt plastic fumes.
I took a few moments to document the evening's events.
(Aaron apologizes for not getting a picture of the flames. However I appreciate that he acted so quickly to get the flames out. He also regrets not getting a picture of the firefighters, but asking two burly men if you can take their picture for your blog is a bit awkward.)
We quickly packed our bags. It crossed my mind that something else might catch on fire while we were gone, and I tried to think of what priceless items we should pack into the car before we left. In the end all we took was a change of clothes, our toothbrushes, and our laptop (which has all of our photos on it).
It was well after midnight when we reached our final destination.
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