My neighbors house just caught on fire....holy crap...

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
6,606
1,991
146
About an hour ago my son came rushing into the bedroom and woke my wife and I up telling us the neighbors house was on fire. I didn't expect much but got up to make sure everything was ok and what I saw was pretty crazy. Emergency services wasn't even on site yet. Thankfully her and her daughter made it out safely but the house is what appears to be a total loss.

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BudAshes

Lifer
Jul 20, 2003
13,911
3,195
146
Daaaaamn!

Glad to hear everyone is ok. We had so many homes burn down in our area this year, it really must be hard to comprehend when all of your things are suddenly gone. I wonder what happened?
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
12,974
7,891
136
I guess it's lucky that where you are being a 'neighbour' seems to involve rather greater distances than it does here.
 
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Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
11,567
2,626
136
I was on shift delivering pizzas once and saw a house in flames. I happened to make a delivery in the summer prior. It was winter when the fire happened. Thus, space heater or forgotten oil pan might have caused it.

It looked like a rental and the guy who ordered pizza was a Spanish speaker.
 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
24,998
3,327
126
I hope everyone is okay. How is your property? When my neighbor's house burnt down, the heat melted my siding. The cost to replace it was just under the deductible for my insurance, so I had to pay for it in full. I got nothing from the neighbor's insurance company either*.

* As it turns out, if it was burnt due to negligence, it would have been covered under one deductible. But since it burnt due to an act of God, all damaged houses and vehicles required their own deductibles.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,201
12,029
126
www.anyf.ca
Damn that sucks. :( That's one of my worst nightmares, just watching everything you own and worked for, up in flames. Hope everyone is ok.

My parents had a house fire a few years back, thankfully they did not lose the house but it was quite a crazy experience for them, and even for me and my sister to see that happen to our childhood house and it could have been much worse. Started in an outside garbage bin and worked it's way in the attic. My dad got woken up by the dishwasher that was on a timer and he had a weird feeling and got up and then he saw the flames from inside. I hate to think what would have happened if he did not wakeup or if they would have even made it out.
 

MtnMan

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2004
8,722
7,828
136
Unfolding my portable soap box.

SMOKE DETECTORS!


Get them, install them, test them, replace the batteries, replace them after 10 years, etc. Do not rely solely on AC powered smoke detectors.

I was a volunteer firefighter for 31+ years. The only fatal fires I have been on either did not have smoke detectors, or they weren't working. The Worst case was a firefighter and his family that died in their home because the fire started in the circuit breaker box, which disabled the AC powered detectors.

My grandson is a full-time firefighter, and in the 1.5 years since he started has been on 3 fatal fires. No working smoke detectors in any of them... worst case was a 3-month-old baby was one of the victims.

Thank you for your attention.

As a footnote: We never unbuckle a dead person from their seat-belt in an MVA, though we extricated too many bodies from vehicles, or under them, or merely cover the body with a sheet where they landed in the road.
 

Mayne

Diamond Member
Apr 13, 2014
8,820
1,358
126
yep smoke detectors. It takes a lot less time to kill you now with all the plastics and crap manufactured today then 40 years ago.
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
21,004
19,444
136
That's nuts. I can't imagine losing everything like that but life is the most important thing to save, so that's good.

Got smoke detectors with battery backups plus in the hallways/stairwell of my 3 unit building there are smoke detectors with a direct line, via a wireless cell phone connection, to the fire department, which has a station down the block. If smoke gets into the hallway, well, theoretically the firemen should be here in a jiffy. Theoretically.
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,828
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Yup, replaced my smoke detectors (and with Carbon detection as well) in the house when we bought it. Definitely a good idea.

Any word on what set the fire off? Especially one of that magnitude - sheeeeeet

Theres gotta be nothing that sucks more ass than running outside... and then just thinking about all the things that you're like "FUCK! I wish I grabbed my NAS GOD DAMNIT!"

Which... after wife +kids... Yeah, my NAS will be the first thing I get lol
 
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Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,246
10,748
136
Yup, replaced my smoke detectors (and with Carbon detection as well) in the house when we bought it. Definitely a good idea.

Any word on what set the fire off? Especially one of that magnitude - sheeeeeet

Theres gotta be nothing that sucks more ass than running outside... and then just thinking about all the things that you're like "FUCK! I wish I grabbed my NAS GOD DAMNIT!"

Which... after wife +kids... Yeah, my NAS will be the first thing I get lol


REMINDER: If your data doesn't exist in 3 PHYSICALLY different locations at ALL times ... it doesn't exist at all. (NAS = one)

You can't have too many backups.
 
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balloonshark

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2008
6,288
2,682
136
There has been 4 fires near my building. The closest was the house behind me. Unfortunately that fire took at least one child's life :(. I think it was started by a relative who fell asleep with a cigarette.

The time change happens on the 14th. It's a good reminder to change your smoke detector batteries.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
45,896
32,696
136
Welp time to order replacements for my home's original detectors since they are over 10 years old. I have a redundancy of 3 Nest Protects and independent carbon monoxide monitors but have to get on this last piece.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
62,681
11,024
136
Unfolding my portable soap box.

SMOKE DETECTORS!

Get them, install them, test them, replace the batteries, replace them after 10 years, etc. Do not rely solely on AC powered smoke detectors.

I was a volunteer firefighter for 31+ years. The only fatal fires I have been on either did not have smoke detectors, or they weren't working. The Worst case was a firefighter and his family that died in their home because the fire started in the circuit breaker box, which disabled the AC powered detectors.

My grandson is a full-time firefighter, and in the 1.5 years since he started has been on 3 fatal fires. No working smoke detectors in any of them... worst case was a 3-month-old baby was one of the victims.

Thank you for your attention.

As a footnote: We never unbuckle a dead person from their seat-belt in an MVA, though we extricated too many bodies from vehicles, or under them, or merely cover the body with a sheet where they landed in the road.

Our house has two hard-wired smoke detectors with battery backup...and battery powered smoke detectors in every bedroom and a couple other rooms that are kind of closed off from the main living space. 2 of the battery powered ones are also CO2 detectors...and are Zwave connected to our Ring alarm system...and those fuckers are pretty sensitive.
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,828
4,777
146
REMINDER: If your data doesn't exist in 3 PHYSICALLY different locations at ALL times ... it doesn't exist at all. (NAS = one)

You can't have too many backups.

lol are you serious? 3 physically different locations?

Aside from a cloud storage provider, how is that even possible ? o_O


I do agree though - I need to find a way to get a backup of my NAS. I do keep a RAID though incase one of the drives fails (and another drive next to it so I can immediately fix it).
 
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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,099
146
lol are you serious? 3 physically different locations?

Aside from a cloud storage provider, how is that even possible ? o_O


I do agree though - I need to find a way to get a backup of my NAS. I do keep a RAID though incase one of the drives fails (and another drive next to it so I can immediately fix it).

safety deposit box and relative/friend's house?

buried in the back yard?
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
6,606
1,991
146
Yeah as I suspected the house is a total loss. Here are a couple of daytime pics as you can see the damage was extensive.
Like I mentioned above the home owner and her daughter made it out safely but they lost there two dogs and three cats to the fire.
No official word yet on the cause but the rumor mill around the neighborhood is it was an unattended space heater.


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Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
11,567
2,626
136
Yeah as I suspected the house is a total loss. Here are a couple of daytime pics as you can see the damage was extensive.
Like I mentioned above the home owner and her daughter made it out safely but they lost there two dogs and three cats to the fire.
No official word yet on the cause but the rumor mill around the neighborhood is it was an unattended space heater.
Animals can knock over space heaters.

 
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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
6,606
1,991
146
holy crap, that's horrible for the animals. :(
Yeah it's really sad. They were there this morning and I was outside having my morning smoke and they were screaming and crying and there was a friend of theirs off in the back yard with a shovel digging a hole.....so I'm guessing they found at least one of their pets.