Kyle@theWintertime
Well-known member
Let me start this by saying, we are OK.
As some of you may know, I moved back in with my dad at the end of last year. Well. Earlier this evening, we had a housefire. It was actually pretty terrifying.
See, each year we cut evergreen branches to make a beautiful live garland on the mantle over the fireplace in the living room. When we take it down at the end of the season, we just put the branches into the fireplace and burn 'em.
The fireplace sucks. It doesn't radiate heat well and the flu tends to back up, plus we've had "chimney fires" before, so...we don't use the fireplace much. At all. Like, EVER, any more. So the branches from LAST year's Christmas/Yule season were still in there. We just haven't bothered to burn them yet.
Yep. PINE branches. Sitting there. In the fireplace. DRYING for a solid YEAR.
I've got midterms this upcoming week so I've been studying like eight to ten hours a day (my new favorite organ is the skeleton. No SRSLY IT'S AN ORGAN and my favorite bone is the Sphenoid. It is a facial bone SHAPED LIKE A BUTTERFLY!!! Next time you meet someone you don't particularly like, just remind yourself that they have a bone that looks like a beautiful white butterfly BEHIND THEIR EYEBALLS.) and so I have been super-distracted.
Tonight my dad announced, "I'm going to burn the old garland so I can take down the mantle tomorrow." I was all "sure, fine, whatever" and went back to trying to tell the cuneiform bones of the foot apart. He lit the fire, and for a moment all was well.
And then smoke billowed out of the fireplace. It isn't the first time, the flu sucks. I hollered "Dad, the fireplace is smoking."
And my dad in a voice of panick replied, "I FORGOT TO OPEN THE FLU."
He ran to the fireplace, reached in and grabbed the chain, and pulled. Nothing happened. Smoke was just POURING out, He pulled and pulled, and it wouldn't budge. I ran to the doors (there's a door to the back yard and a door to the garage on either side of the room) and threw them open to vent the smoke.............not that it did much good.
Then the pine really got going. Suddenly it wasn't just smoke billowing out, but flames. The fire was just suddenly this huge conflagration, and my dad was forced to back off. The flames were shooting like five or six feet out of the fireplace...I'm not exaggerating because there are things that are five, six feet away that CAUGHT FIRE when the flames reached them.
My dad told me to call the fire department, and he ran to see if he could find a fire extinguisher. I didn't even know we had one. Dad said a moment ago he was surprised it worked, it's so old and has never been maintained.
While I fumbled for the phone (within seconds of the fire bursting out of the fireplace, the room was so thick with smoke you couldn't see your hand in front of your face without crouching down under the smoke cloud!) my dad put out the stuff in the room that was on fire and then turned the extinguisher on the fireplace itself. He emptied it to get the fire to back off for a moment. We could finally see why the flu chain didn't move: it was wrapped around a peg and tied onto itself. By that point the fire had made the metal chain red-hot...I grabbed a towel and my dad used that to try and untie the chain but it was too difficult. The fire was coming back to life, the extinguisher was empty, my dad did the only thing he could think to do, he grabbed the chain with his bare hands and quickly untied it. The flu popped open and the fire went up instead of out.
I was choking badly due to smoke. We both went outside so I could hack up my lungs for a while and so my dad could put his hands in the snow. He got some nasty burns to his palms. I can't quite stop coughing, I sound like a smoker now. But it could have been much, much worse.
If my dad didn't have the extinguisher, we'd have lost the house.
I didn't even think about the dogs when I opened the door to the garage (and opened the garage at the same time). What if they ran out the door and were never seen again? Fortunately both dogs ran to their crates and hid in them, but what if they hadn't?
If it looked like we were losing the battle, I'd have grabbed my cats (they live in my room upstairs) and stuffed them in my car, and driven my car across the street. But what about my rabbits? They live in an outdoor lean-to but the lean-to is only about ten feet from the side of the house, and there's trees and bushes between them and they would have surely been affected. I have no idea what I'd have done to save them...probably stuffed them into a box and shoved them in my trunk. But I worry now.
Of note, NONE of our fire alarms went off. I know we haven't checked them like we should...we could pay for that with our lives if a fire starts while we sleep.
HOWEVER, we didn't lose and so the house didn't burn down...yeah I got some smoke in my lungs and my dad's hands are burned but we're really going to be just fine...the pets didn't get harmed or lost. It could have been SO much worse!!!
Methinks tomorrow while I'm at the college (ALL DAY, man oh man I don't get out til 9:40 pm) my dad will service the smoke alarms, and maybe get the insurance people involved since we're gonna need the smoke and fire damaged stuff cleaned. The fire department never actually came, lol. :roll: Thank goodness we got it under control ourselves!!!!
...............and the mundane reality that I still have to review synovial joints for a test tomorrow looms over me.
As some of you may know, I moved back in with my dad at the end of last year. Well. Earlier this evening, we had a housefire. It was actually pretty terrifying.
See, each year we cut evergreen branches to make a beautiful live garland on the mantle over the fireplace in the living room. When we take it down at the end of the season, we just put the branches into the fireplace and burn 'em.
The fireplace sucks. It doesn't radiate heat well and the flu tends to back up, plus we've had "chimney fires" before, so...we don't use the fireplace much. At all. Like, EVER, any more. So the branches from LAST year's Christmas/Yule season were still in there. We just haven't bothered to burn them yet.
Yep. PINE branches. Sitting there. In the fireplace. DRYING for a solid YEAR.
I've got midterms this upcoming week so I've been studying like eight to ten hours a day (my new favorite organ is the skeleton. No SRSLY IT'S AN ORGAN and my favorite bone is the Sphenoid. It is a facial bone SHAPED LIKE A BUTTERFLY!!! Next time you meet someone you don't particularly like, just remind yourself that they have a bone that looks like a beautiful white butterfly BEHIND THEIR EYEBALLS.) and so I have been super-distracted.
Tonight my dad announced, "I'm going to burn the old garland so I can take down the mantle tomorrow." I was all "sure, fine, whatever" and went back to trying to tell the cuneiform bones of the foot apart. He lit the fire, and for a moment all was well.
And then smoke billowed out of the fireplace. It isn't the first time, the flu sucks. I hollered "Dad, the fireplace is smoking."
And my dad in a voice of panick replied, "I FORGOT TO OPEN THE FLU."
He ran to the fireplace, reached in and grabbed the chain, and pulled. Nothing happened. Smoke was just POURING out, He pulled and pulled, and it wouldn't budge. I ran to the doors (there's a door to the back yard and a door to the garage on either side of the room) and threw them open to vent the smoke.............not that it did much good.
Then the pine really got going. Suddenly it wasn't just smoke billowing out, but flames. The fire was just suddenly this huge conflagration, and my dad was forced to back off. The flames were shooting like five or six feet out of the fireplace...I'm not exaggerating because there are things that are five, six feet away that CAUGHT FIRE when the flames reached them.
My dad told me to call the fire department, and he ran to see if he could find a fire extinguisher. I didn't even know we had one. Dad said a moment ago he was surprised it worked, it's so old and has never been maintained.
While I fumbled for the phone (within seconds of the fire bursting out of the fireplace, the room was so thick with smoke you couldn't see your hand in front of your face without crouching down under the smoke cloud!) my dad put out the stuff in the room that was on fire and then turned the extinguisher on the fireplace itself. He emptied it to get the fire to back off for a moment. We could finally see why the flu chain didn't move: it was wrapped around a peg and tied onto itself. By that point the fire had made the metal chain red-hot...I grabbed a towel and my dad used that to try and untie the chain but it was too difficult. The fire was coming back to life, the extinguisher was empty, my dad did the only thing he could think to do, he grabbed the chain with his bare hands and quickly untied it. The flu popped open and the fire went up instead of out.
I was choking badly due to smoke. We both went outside so I could hack up my lungs for a while and so my dad could put his hands in the snow. He got some nasty burns to his palms. I can't quite stop coughing, I sound like a smoker now. But it could have been much, much worse.
If my dad didn't have the extinguisher, we'd have lost the house.
I didn't even think about the dogs when I opened the door to the garage (and opened the garage at the same time). What if they ran out the door and were never seen again? Fortunately both dogs ran to their crates and hid in them, but what if they hadn't?
If it looked like we were losing the battle, I'd have grabbed my cats (they live in my room upstairs) and stuffed them in my car, and driven my car across the street. But what about my rabbits? They live in an outdoor lean-to but the lean-to is only about ten feet from the side of the house, and there's trees and bushes between them and they would have surely been affected. I have no idea what I'd have done to save them...probably stuffed them into a box and shoved them in my trunk. But I worry now.
Of note, NONE of our fire alarms went off. I know we haven't checked them like we should...we could pay for that with our lives if a fire starts while we sleep.
HOWEVER, we didn't lose and so the house didn't burn down...yeah I got some smoke in my lungs and my dad's hands are burned but we're really going to be just fine...the pets didn't get harmed or lost. It could have been SO much worse!!!
Methinks tomorrow while I'm at the college (ALL DAY, man oh man I don't get out til 9:40 pm) my dad will service the smoke alarms, and maybe get the insurance people involved since we're gonna need the smoke and fire damaged stuff cleaned. The fire department never actually came, lol. :roll: Thank goodness we got it under control ourselves!!!!
...............and the mundane reality that I still have to review synovial joints for a test tomorrow looms over me.