We just had a housefire.

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I'm glad you all are okay! I know from experience how scary a fire is. When we had a small fire our detectors never went off either (until after the FD showed up and almost all the smoke was gone :roll: )! But I KNOW they were up to date. They were new as well as the batteries. Don't know what happened. :?

Anyway, so glad you did not lose the house. Hope your insurence works with you better than ours did!
 
How very scary! SO glad you were able to get things under control on your own! Wow, it could have been bad! Thank you for the reminder to check our own fire alarms here!!!
 
I know how scary that can be- when I was around 7 or 8 my mom and I did the same thing with fresh pine branches. Thankfully we didn't have more pine boughs on the mantle! :x

We replace our fire alarm batteries when the time changes here.

I'm glad you are all safe.
 
I worry all the time about who I'm going to save in a fire and how because the reality is that I can't save every animal I have. Even if it was a slow fire. My parrot would probably just die from the smoke so I don't know if he'd be worth attempting to save only to have him die later and someone else get left behind in his place as well. Probably the dogs and the hedgehogs and then if possible see if I can get Amako out of her bottom cage that I have to crawl in to.
 
Happy to read that everyone is ok. I have lost a house to a fire, and it is terrifying.

You might not want to read about this right now, and I don't blame you, but a few things I have learned:

As to the fireplace, I echo Mickey. Please clean it once a year. Those creosote cleaners create a heavy fire and burn the build up, which may not be a good starting place in a heavily sooted chimney. You might have to get a good starting point by climbing up and actually cleaning the flue first. There is a metal brush and tubing set you can get to clean it out well. Then I would use the creosote burning stuff annually. That's what we do with our wood stove. We only use pine for kindling though, because of that issue.
 
Burning paper and paper products will clog up the chimney much faster than wood. That comes from our chimney sweep. The first time we had our chimney cleaned, we'd been using it for three years (new house). There was so much creosote built up that the sweep told us it was a miracle we hadn't had a fire in the chimney yet.
 
Wow thats some scary carp, worried about your dads hands, hope its not too painful. So glad the house didn't go up, must have been terrifying. Fire is the one thing that really frightens me, my stepdad lost his mother and brother in a fire. Hearing fire sirens still makes me tweak after all these years. Had a problem here some years ago, we live on a big hill, tree fell on the electrical lines and started a forest fire right below our house. Neighbors are freaking out cause no electric means no water from the wells, no way to even wet down our houses. We're waiting for the Fire company and its coming right up the hill fast, neighbor lady starts yelling for me to get my dogs out of the house. So I stuffed all my shelties into the truck and drove it up the road, ran back to try and get the cats and rabbits. Fire luckily slowed down and started to burn out, so there wasn't much left of it when the fire trucks finally showed up. Makes you think, it can happen so fast, you grab what means the most to you first, for me thats the dogs. Hope your dad got those hands looked at.
 
Sooooo glad you are ok. Your title almost gave me a heart attack. Started a bit of a chimney fire in college, I'm not much of a fire starter now. Don't even like to barbecue anymore. Losing my barn is my worst nightmare, since there are only extension cords and not proper wiring, so I try not to put anything but lights on it. I probably should put smoke detectors in there too.
 
What a terrible experience --- but a great story. Our fire alarms go off almost every time I use the oven, but I guess the earaches are better than losing the house.
 
Thanks guys, you guys are awesome. :) Also thank you for all the advice, my dad and I are discussing ways to be safer in the future and the advice really helps. :)

The FD didn't come because apparently after it was over and I was hacking up my lungs, somehow my dad found the presence of mind to call them and tell them we are ok, fire's out. Apparently they HADN'T EVEN LEFT YET. This baffles me as they are only about three miles away on the same road we live on. :p Then again, a friend reminded me that the average responce time is like half an hour, so...eek!!!

Still coughing pretty frequently, but less and less. My dad's hands are going to take a while to heal...the left hand has a perfect imprint of the chain. You can count every link, it's pretty awful. But it will heal eventually!!!
 
Wow. I am glad everything is ok!! You described it so well I could picture it all in sequence (how I guess your house would look anyways) man oh man.

I worry about my birds alot. Especially when I am not home. If there was a fire -shivers-. Luckily I can just grab them and shove them in something as long as they are not too high in the aviary for me to reach. Scary thoughts none the less!
 
I am anal about fireplaces. I was even before I got birds but more so after. When one is lit at my boyfriends and I am in that room I watch it because even with a guard things fly out and then I see them land on the carpet and once in a blue moon catch a little then go out. It bothers me. If a house is destined to catch fire ok but I won't help it along with a fire place. An electric one is good enough for me :) and safe for my birds
 
I love fire and a fireplace with a fire burned down to glowing coals and embers is one of my favorite things. :) Alas, accidents can and do happen. Best we can do is be better aware and prepared for next time!!! The new house rule: NO DRY PINE BOUGHS IN THE FIRE. They burn too hot and too fast, and pine sparks a LOT. :)
 
No wet pine either. The oils will smoke up the chimney and start another fire. Get burn barrel/pile, if you can.<br /><br />__________ Fri Feb 08, 2013 1:38 pm __________<br /><br />Oh, and if you have a burn pile, be careful. This happened in my back yard about 3 years ago.

47986_1485794099730_2729046_n.jpg

That hedge was about 6-7 feet tall.
 
FWIW...DH will never, Ever burn pine in our wood stove. The pitch makes too much creosote and can cause chimney fires too easily. We only burn well seasoned hardwood.

So glad You and Your Father will be alright !!! Fire is one of my really Big fears !!!
 
I learned from having a lot off bonfires as a kid that pine smokes like crazy and would never burn it inside. Also learned that choke cherry crackles nice outside ^^
 
Kyle@theHeathertoft":1lcjfjeq said:
Holy cow, that is a HUGE fire! :x

I don't like burning pine, too many sparks and smoke. :p
Click to expand...
Yeah, it spread to a buried pile of tires I didn't know I had. I almost got fined, but the previous owner had a reputation for burying garbage, it turns out. I'm more careful about how I burn now.
 

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