Well howdy, reader!
How're you doing? Didja have a pleasant Thanksgiving? Lots of good food, good family, good fun?
Marvelous!
We had a pretty fine time here at the Casa, ourselves.
We've had an exciting week here at Casa de Crazy. There was Thanksgiving, and then there were some tornado warnings, and then Someone's son welcomed his first child into the world - a daughter - and made Someone an awfully proud grandfather.
Someone was so excited, he lit a candle in celebration. It's a thing us witches do. We like to celebrate. With fire.
How're you doing? Didja have a pleasant Thanksgiving? Lots of good food, good family, good fun?
Marvelous!
We had a pretty fine time here at the Casa, ourselves.
We've had an exciting week here at Casa de Crazy. There was Thanksgiving, and then there were some tornado warnings, and then Someone's son welcomed his first child into the world - a daughter - and made Someone an awfully proud grandfather.
Someone was so excited, he lit a candle in celebration. It's a thing us witches do. We like to celebrate. With fire.
There we were, eating dinner and waiting for the brownies to cool enough to nom. Someone is away for a week, and Mizz A came over to hang out and harass the kids. I was typing along on Albino Bob when I smelled something a bit...off.
Kind of like a plastic spoon hit the heating element in the dishwasher. Phew.
So I opened the dishwasher, but that didn't seem to be it. Then Mizz A saw smoke curling up from behind the stove.
Umm.
No?
I cleared of the stove and asked her to go get the extinguisher that lives just outside the door to the garage. I had one in the kitchen, but it was quite small and maybe 20 years old, and I wanted a back-up, just in case.
I had Bird stand by to call 911 if need arose, and told Sprout to stay away from the kitchen so she didn't get in the way or get burned or smoked like a sausage.
When Mizz A opened the garage door, she found out that the fire was actually in the garage. Whew! So glad my oven wasn't toast!
Umm.
Oh, yeah...but that means the garage is on fire.
Dang.
I carried my small halon extinguisher (the old one from the kitchen) down the stairs and asked Mizz A to open the big garage door. I went out the front, around into the garage, and hit the fire with the halon. I'm really going to miss that little giant. Sniff.
It did the job, that wee marvel, but is now kaput and I will never be able to replace it. Thanks for your sacrifice, my halon hero!
Just for safety's sake, I popped my 5lb dry-chem bottle and hit the fire spot again. I emptied it. It was my oldest dry-chem bottle, and I'll miss it, too. I worked many races with that as my sidekick, even put out a care fire on the side of the highway and a grass fire once. Sigh.
Turns out Someone sort of forgot to tell me a candle was burning in there*. I don't think it was the taper candle**...I think it was the jar candle behind it. I'll find out whenever he calls. Meanwhile, what a mess!
I shot a photo or two AFTER I got the fire out and doused the whole area with water to keep any hot spots from flaring up.
Kind of like a plastic spoon hit the heating element in the dishwasher. Phew.
So I opened the dishwasher, but that didn't seem to be it. Then Mizz A saw smoke curling up from behind the stove.
Umm.
No?
I cleared of the stove and asked her to go get the extinguisher that lives just outside the door to the garage. I had one in the kitchen, but it was quite small and maybe 20 years old, and I wanted a back-up, just in case.
I had Bird stand by to call 911 if need arose, and told Sprout to stay away from the kitchen so she didn't get in the way or get burned or smoked like a sausage.
When Mizz A opened the garage door, she found out that the fire was actually in the garage. Whew! So glad my oven wasn't toast!
Umm.
Oh, yeah...but that means the garage is on fire.
Dang.
I carried my small halon extinguisher (the old one from the kitchen) down the stairs and asked Mizz A to open the big garage door. I went out the front, around into the garage, and hit the fire with the halon. I'm really going to miss that little giant. Sniff.
It did the job, that wee marvel, but is now kaput and I will never be able to replace it. Thanks for your sacrifice, my halon hero!
Just for safety's sake, I popped my 5lb dry-chem bottle and hit the fire spot again. I emptied it. It was my oldest dry-chem bottle, and I'll miss it, too. I worked many races with that as my sidekick, even put out a care fire on the side of the highway and a grass fire once. Sigh.
Turns out Someone sort of forgot to tell me a candle was burning in there*. I don't think it was the taper candle**...I think it was the jar candle behind it. I'll find out whenever he calls. Meanwhile, what a mess!
I shot a photo or two AFTER I got the fire out and doused the whole area with water to keep any hot spots from flaring up.
Pretty sure that's not right. Cough.
And that's AFTER some of the smoke cleared. The inside of the Casa wasn't much better. Mizz A helped by making the smoke detector (that went off a bit late in the game) shut up and then opening windows and turning on bathroom fans up and down stairs. Bird took care of his sister and then got a fan plugged in and placed in the door between the house and garage to help clear smoke from the downstairs.
I took more photos, because priorities. I also called my mother to let her know what happened. Yeah, I bet she's gonna sleep well tonight...the night before she leaves for a cruise in Europe. I'm thoughtful, that way. That white powder on the floor? Used to be inside my dry-chem bottle.
All that blackened stuff? Umm...didn't used to be blackened.
For a little while, Mizz A and I played "What the hell WAS that???" with all the charred, melted goo on the crate. Good times.
Mmm, dry-chem powder...so tasty on the tongue, so lovely in the lungs.
The cobwebs on the garage look spectacular. Poor spiders...
The ceiling above the crate where the fire was may need some love...but right now it looks like a goth kid's bedroom decor dream.
Seriously nifty cobweb action. Mizz A will get some better photos in the morning with her camera that isn't a phone. Everything is art, around here!
More webs. Groovy.
So there was a bucket of fish tank gravel and an old TV remote.
This metal candle sconce thingy fared okay, just got a little powdered. A wipe down will see it right as rain.
Then there's what we think may once have been a traffic light...light, and an old lawn sprinkler.
Now this hurts...Someone's carboys, some of them vintage, cracked.
Won't be brewing any more blueberry-pomegranate wine in there...waaaah!
See that lovely soot? It's kinds greasy and Mizz A and I had to wash our hands a bit to get it off. Blech.
Pan made it, and I'm glad of that. I adore that Pan.
A look at the ceiling after most of the smoke cleared.
I will have to get quite a lot of wall and ceiling cleaned up and probably either re-painted or replaced, but that will keep. Cleaning up the crate will keep.
The kids and cats re fine. The Casa is fine. Mizz A and I may have sucked in a bit of smoke, but we're fine, too. Everyone responded marvelously to a moderately scary situation and the damage was minimal. Also, we had brownies after, so there was that.
Now, I think we're due some good luck...so maybe tomorrow I will purchase a lottery ticket.
*We are usually very fire safe, and this was a rather unusual oversight. No, really. I've been burning candles and whatnot for more than 20 years and this is a first. Had I known it was down there, I would have been looking after it and likely this wouldn't have happened. Even so, this could have been far worse, and I'm just glad that this happened while I was here to deal with it and that when Someone comes home, he has a home to come home to!
**Edit - The candle in the photo at the top of the post did not cause the fire. I repeat, that candle didn't cause the fire. What DID cause it is a mystery and will likely remain so. I'm not a fire investigator and I don't really need to know what caused the burn...we handled it and all's well that ends well. There is no blame to be assigned. The kids are fine. They did great. I'm proud of them. The cats were annoyed. They did fine. I'm proud of them. Mizz A and I are fine. We worked well as a team. I'm proud of us. Someone is chagrined that something of his cause such havoc. He will live and learn. We are now getting on with life, because that's what we do. Thank you.
I will have to get quite a lot of wall and ceiling cleaned up and probably either re-painted or replaced, but that will keep. Cleaning up the crate will keep.
The kids and cats re fine. The Casa is fine. Mizz A and I may have sucked in a bit of smoke, but we're fine, too. Everyone responded marvelously to a moderately scary situation and the damage was minimal. Also, we had brownies after, so there was that.
Now, I think we're due some good luck...so maybe tomorrow I will purchase a lottery ticket.
*We are usually very fire safe, and this was a rather unusual oversight. No, really. I've been burning candles and whatnot for more than 20 years and this is a first. Had I known it was down there, I would have been looking after it and likely this wouldn't have happened. Even so, this could have been far worse, and I'm just glad that this happened while I was here to deal with it and that when Someone comes home, he has a home to come home to!
**Edit - The candle in the photo at the top of the post did not cause the fire. I repeat, that candle didn't cause the fire. What DID cause it is a mystery and will likely remain so. I'm not a fire investigator and I don't really need to know what caused the burn...we handled it and all's well that ends well. There is no blame to be assigned. The kids are fine. They did great. I'm proud of them. The cats were annoyed. They did fine. I'm proud of them. Mizz A and I are fine. We worked well as a team. I'm proud of us. Someone is chagrined that something of his cause such havoc. He will live and learn. We are now getting on with life, because that's what we do. Thank you.
Posts
1 comment:
No burning candles in the garage!
Post a Comment