During golf this morning one of my foursome told the tale of his house fire this winter.

They left in the morning as normal but during the day the had an electrical fire ( toothbrush or hair dryer unk) in their master bathroom.
The bathroom door was closed so the fire was oxygen starved and smoldered all day.
Around 4:00 PM his wife and kids got home to be greeted by the smell of smoke and the fire alarm going off.
They called 911 and the fire dept responded.
When the fire dept opened the bathroom door, the oxygen starved fire now well fed erupted, and violently so.
A wall of fire ripped down the hallway with enough force to blow out all of the second story windows.
The fire dept was prepared with hoses and doused the fire immediately but they extensive smoke and water damage.

So lessons learned here:
walk through your house with a video or still camera so you can catalog later.
store the pictures elsewhere. (they're pretty useless if they burn too.)

but most importantly, if you smell smoke and the detectors are going off,
GET THE HELL OUT
Let's the pros take care of it.

Had the family members gone to investigate without the protective clothing they most likely would have had loss of life or serious injury.
Without having fire suppression equipment in hand as well, the house would have been a total loss.


The good news is they are all OK and have a tale to tell.

 

 

Just to add to this ...

Never leave your house with the dryer running!
Replace your dryer vent hose if it is plastic ... install a metal one.

Thanks for your story ...