Saved my neighbors house from catching fire. Right place, right time, otherwise POOF!

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,235
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I went to get the mail, and was standing out front across the street talking to someone I had just introduced myself to, who was working on an empty house. We noticed that a house a few houses down on my side of the street, seemed to have a lot of smoke coming from it. Some dumb 19-20 somethings were getting drunk outside and made a stupid campfire next to their house to burn trash in, which is obviously illegal with burn bans in place, anyways.

So we notice that the fire has moved to his grass and chain link fence line, and he and the drunk 19 year old females are running back and forth with containers of water trying to put it out. Just then, the wind whips up strong, and starts blowing the fire directly towards my neighbors house across an empty field next door, and then towards my house, too. The stupid drunk guy starts yelling FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! ect. out loud.

I didn't have my phone on me, and when my new friend tried 911, the stupid dispatch here was screwing around with him, and connecting him to the wrong FD, and wasting several minutes we could have been calling someone else to actually put this out. So the guy I'm talking to fast dials his brother down the street, who owns a water tanker truck and works as a volunteer for a FD in the next city over.

I ran across the street to my house, to grab my phone and call the head of our FD myself, and tell him to get his butt over here ASAP. Meanwhile, while I got back outside, less than a minute later, the fire had now reached my next door neighbors house, and was catching the corner on fire. I ran to his house and started banging on the front door, and the side of his house by his bedroom and told him to get out his house was on fire as loud as I could.

Meanwhile, the guy from across the street had grabbed my neighbors hose, and started putting his house out. My next door neighbor finally came out with a towel wrapped around him, because he had been in the shower with no clue what was going on. He ran back inside to grab some shorts, just as the guy down the street with the tanker truck pulls up and starts putting out the field, which was completely engulfed in flames at this point. After some more time passed, our FD finally shows up and starts putting out the fire, too.

The winds were gusting at 25-30 MPH, and blowing directly towards my neighbors house and mine. If I had not happened to be out there talking to the guy across the street, who would have otherwise been inside working on that house, it's very likely my neighbors house would have been fully engulfed in flames and maybe even my own before these stupid drunk teenagers even picked up the phone to call 911. It literally took less than a minute to cross the field and start my neighbors house on fire, and a minute later would have been burning at my house, too.

Minors, alcohol (and probably drugs) and fire do not mix, kiddos. WTH were you thinking, oh wait, you weren't thinking, that was the problem.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,981
8,219
126
Me too. I put some tortilla chips and cheese in the microwave, and if I didn't take them out a minute and a half later, there's no telling what would have happened. I was cutting it close, but my expert skills, and fast action saved my house, and probably the neighbor's houses too.
 

02ranger

Golden Member
Mar 22, 2006
1,046
0
76
Me too. I put some tortilla chips and cheese in the microwave, and if I didn't take them out a minute and a half later, there's no telling what would have happened. I was cutting it close, but my expert skills, and fast action saved my house, and probably the neighbor's houses too.

I can top that. I decided NOT to bring a small space heater into my bedroom from the shop today, opting for the central heat instead. If I had brought it inside and if it had gotten too close to something flammable and if I had been paying zero attention, well, bing-bang-boom there'd be a lot of homeless neighbors on my road......

In all seriousness, I'm glad nobody was hurt OP.
 

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,235
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wow dumb fucks. Also you don't have an extinguisher?

Yea, a few small kitchen ones, they would be like spitting on the fire, this was spreading way too fast, like a wildfire. The flames were 6-10 feet high and the winds were way too strong to hope to do anything unless you had lots of high pressure water hitting it. The empty field/lot was completely torched down to the dirt and out to the street.

Even the guy with the hose on the corner of the house was just about useless until they hit the fire with the high pressure hoses, too.

On a side note, this was also my neighbor who used to BBQ and burn trash outside when it blew up plenty of sparks and burning pieces of paper into my trees and onto my roof who I had gotten into it with before over being so careless. He claimed he had a hose nearby if it got out of hand, and didn't seem to grasp how useless that hose would be once it flared up. Since I'm a firefighter, I have heard this same excuse like a thousand times before, while we are putting someone's house out. I think he understands now how quickly these things spread now that he's seen it for himself first hand. He was pretty grateful we happened to be outside at the right time and we reacted as quickly as we did to it.
 
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mikeford

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2001
5,671
160
106
Condo assoc tried to make everybody store their hoses in the garage or limited to 25 feet and I told them no Fing way I have less hose on my faucet then reaches every area around my house.

Seconds count in a fire, want to hear the FD scream, use your own firehose on a hydrant and put out a fire before they arrive. The minutes of time you put water on the fire are supposed to be nothing vs the seconds it takes them to disconnect and put their hose on.
 

velillen

Platinum Member
Jul 12, 2006
2,120
1
81
Scary but glad it all worked out! I keep hoses on all my faucets on the outside just for that reason. Plus there is no hydrant near by so unless its small by the time the fire department gets here im pretty SOL.

The fire department is literally 2 miles from my house but it would still probably be 5 minutes for them to get there (assuming that station isnt out on a call already).
 

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,235
2
0
funny how mother nature gets off the hook and can't be charged with anything.

Yea, someone needs to just fire her ass.

Well, in her defense she also gives us glorious water to put out fire with, so there's that.
 
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SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,235
2
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Scary but glad it all worked out! I keep hoses on all my faucets on the outside just for that reason. Plus there is no hydrant near by so unless its small by the time the fire department gets here im pretty SOL.

The fire department is literally 2 miles from my house but it would still probably be 5 minutes for them to get there (assuming that station isnt out on a call already).

Our small city finally did some hydrant and water line upgrades last year. Unfortunately, not all streets got hydrants yet, so they would have to pull water from one street over if they ran out in a fire here.

When the wind is blowing hard in strong gusts, the time it takes for a fire to spread fast is measured in seconds, instead of minutes if no wind was present.
 

velillen

Platinum Member
Jul 12, 2006
2,120
1
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Our small city finally did some hydrant and water line upgrades last year. Unfortunately, not all streets got hydrants yet, so they would have to pull water from one street over if they ran out in a fire here.

When the wind is blowing hard in strong gusts, the time it takes for a fire to spread fast is measured in seconds, instead of minutes if no wind was present.

Yeah im rural so it wouldnt be cost effective really to do them. Each lot by me is a minimum 3/4 acre (some being bigger) so to be a hydrant in they would still need 300-400 feet of hose just to reach the house that is two away from the hydrant.

And i know all about how fast wind can cause fire to spread. Dated a girl who did the forest service fire fighting for a few years. Had some crazy stories of how fast things can change


It would be interesting if it was one of my neighbors. Ive actually never met him or his family and ive been here 2.5 years. Ill be outside doing yard work and they never come out. Same if i do come out while they are out they will pick up everything and go inside >.<. But we share a well and every year the power for it is supposed to be transfered between us and they never have done that (granted its just a well pump so cant be that much). But they do grow pot so might have something to do with that too :)
 

VulgarDisplay

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2009
6,188
2
76
Yea, a few small kitchen ones, they would be like spitting on the fire, this was spreading way too fast, like a wildfire. The flames were 6-10 feet high and the winds were way too strong to hope to do anything unless you had lots of high pressure water hitting it. The empty field/lot was completely torched down to the dirt and out to the street.

Even the guy with the hose on the corner of the house was just about useless until they hit the fire with the high pressure hoses, too.

On a side note, this was also my neighbor who used to BBQ and burn trash outside when it blew up plenty of sparks and burning pieces of paper into my trees and onto my roof who I had gotten into it with before over being so careless. He claimed he had a hose nearby if it got out of hand, and didn't seem to grasp how useless that hose would be once it flared up. Since I'm a firefighter, I have heard this same excuse like a thousand times before, while we are putting someone's house out. I think he understands now how quickly these things spread now that he's seen it for himself first hand. He was pretty grateful we happened to be outside at the right time and we reacted as quickly as we did to it.

Wait, so the grass was not grass and was napalm now? This story keeps getting better and better.
 

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,235
2
0
Wait, so the grass was not grass and was napalm now? This story keeps getting better and better.

The weeds in the field were dry and dead and about 4-6 feet high. The story keeps getting better and better how? When your stoned and getting high? Glad you are so easily amused.
 

SlickSnake

Diamond Member
May 29, 2007
5,235
2
0
you prevented your neighbor from getting the brand new house ;)

Actually, I don't think so. It's an owner financed older home that my neighbor has almost paid off. When he called up to inquire about insurance deductibles and stuff, he was informed by the owner there was no insurance on it. So as soon as he's paid it off at the end of the year, he plans on insuring it. It would have been a total loss for him, and all the money he spent on it.

If that happened to mine, then yea, I would have a new home though. But still, I keep my contents insured below the value somewhat, so there is no way I could recoup all my personal possessions in a fire. Maybe 2/3s of it. But some of my collectable stuff and artwork would be extremely hard to replace anyway, even if it was all covered.
 

JEDIYoda

Lifer
Jul 13, 2005
33,986
3,320
126
Quote:
Originally Posted by lxskllr
Me too. I put some tortilla chips and cheese in the microwave, and if I didn't take them out a minute and a half later, there's no telling what would have happened. I was cutting it close, but my expert skills, and fast action saved my house, and probably the neighbor's houses too.

I can top that. I decided NOT to bring a small space heater into my bedroom from the shop today, opting for the central heat instead. If I had brought it inside and if it had gotten too close to something flammable and if I had been paying zero attention, well, bing-bang-boom there'd be a lot of homeless neighbors on my road......
I can top both of you.....

My next door neigbor left her 8 vibrators on and had I not noticed the loud noise and banged on her door to ewake her up....heaven knows what could have happened had the over heated and started a fire...