Superbowl was too hot for me

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Princess Valiant

Princess Valiant

A.K.A. Rainy Day Auto
FABO Gold Member
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it was a hot superbowl here ...literally.

during half time i was serving cupcakes and everyone was having fun.....out of the corner of my ear i heard a beeping noise .......it didnt stop so i went around the house to find the beep and i went in the kitchen by the stairs to go downstairs ...the beeping got louder. so i followed it downstairs and i thought it was carbon monoxide detector ....so i peeked around the corner into the utility room to see what was happening.

the digital readout was zero but as i was looking at it, i start seeing smoke ...lots of smoke.......and found that the beeping was coming from the fire alarm....not the carbon detector

i follow the smoke only to find my whole furnace covered in flames.

i right away ran upstairs and got the fire extinguisher ..... running was a blur to me bcoz i was pumped on adrenaline and fear ran back downstairs and grabbed a broom on the way.

i used the broom handle to knock the front cover of the furnace off ....i never had so much strength before .....the plastic on the end of the broomstick was starting to melt as i struggled with the front cover a bit ......the front cover came off and made a ton of noise that alerted ppl upstairs that something was wrong.......flames billowed out after the cover came off and the furnace was actully running during all this.

without thinking i ran up to the furnace with the extingisher and let the extiguisher go crazy with full spray.......within a blink of an eye WAWOOOSH the fire was out ...i hit the electrical switch shut the heater down .....ran to my purse got an adjustable wrench .....shut off the gas valve.

by then the basement was full of smoke and ppl were starting to yell my name bcoz they knew something was wrong with all the smoke and they didnt how i was doing in there.

i came out calm and let everything cool for about a half hour...turned some fans on and opened windows for the smoke.

went back took a pic to see the damage.

and i burst out in tears. LOL

the heater is gone ....i slept last night with a space heater and the whole house is 58 degrees now.

the damage dont look as bad on this side once everything cooled .
 

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Geez woman we are all glad that you are here to tell us the story!! You should be volunteering with the local fire department....not trying to sound chauvinistic here, but why didnt you get one of the guys to do that??!?!?!?
It looks like its an oil furnace?? You need to get that chkd asap!!
 
4spdragtop said:
Geez woman we are all glad that you are here to tell us the story!! You should be volunteering with the local fire department....not trying to sound chauvinistic here, but why didnt you get one of the guys to do that??!?!?!?
It looks like its an oil furnace?? You need to get that chkd asap!!
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there were guys here ...but they were distracted with the game ...it was right when the superbowl lights went out ..


it happened so fast i didnt even think to call them .....i was on adrenaline and just acted without thinking about it.

its a gas heater ...

my uncle is going to replace the whole thing.....kinda scary...scared ..the Cra$ out of him too
 
Good job with your swift and brave reaction......you are a hero :glasses7:
 
I'm glad to hear that you are oK...for some reason the one thing that I find funny is that you ran to your PURSE to get an adjustable wrench......really glad that you are OK, I'msending you huggssssss
 
Fast instincts young lady, yes you think fast on your feet and saved the house and or more damage.... Wow I bet that scared the bajeebeez out of you.. Good job Fire lady
Have the flew checked and I am sure the new one will have a evacuation vent motor that will kick on before the igniter kicks on to light the gas.. again good job!
 
Yikes Rani!!! Between that and the water heater it looks like a few systems upgrades are in order. So glad it wasn't worse. You acted like a real trooper though and got the situation controlled. Doesn't surprize me a bit. Good luck & stay as warm as you can for now :thumleft:.
 
I used to service HVAC. Make sure you get someone qualified to find out WHY.

You may have a plugged vent (flue, chimmney) or some other pressure problem in the house causing a poor draft situation. All the more modern stuff has what is known as a "roll out" switch which kicks off the burner in case of this type situation.

Glad you are OK. The outcome could have been much different.
 
Seems like maybe a roll-out switch malfunction. Oh, if you only lived in my neighborhood, my neighbor Big Al would be over there in a second to fix that furnace for you. I'll bet theres nothing wrong with the furnace itself and just a relay or something. As Big Al always says, theres only 4 things that can go wrong with a gas furnace, and they're all electrical!!

An adjustable wrench in your purse?? My hero!!! Geof
 
southerneagle said:
I'm glad to hear that you are oK...for some reason the one thing that I find funny is that you ran to your PURSE to get an adjustable wrench......really glad that you are OK, I'msending you huggssssss
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i daily drive a mopar ....standard purse contents are: 7/16, 1/2 and 9/16 wrenches .....one adjustable wrench, ....screwdriver with changable bits.....one pair of pliers.....one hair brush, one hair comb.....extra hair ties, a hair clip, eyeliner pencil, one lipstick with a different color on each end, pair of tweezers. a wallet with 4 dollars in it ....and some loose change on the bottom LOL
 
RaniDart70 said:
there were guys here ...but they were distracted with the game ...it was right when the superbowl lights went out ..
it happened so fast i didnt even think to call them .....i was on adrenaline and just acted without thinking about it.
its a gas heater ...
my uncle is going to replace the whole thing.....kinda scary...scared ..the Cra$ out of him too
Click to expand...

Im still in awe there Wonder Woman!!
When you say gas you mean Natural Gas??? If so THAT WAS ONE CLOSE CALL!!!!

southerneagle said:
for some reason the one thing that I find funny is that you ran to your PURSE to get an adjustable wrench......
Click to expand...

That is funny!
 
OldmanRick said:
Yikes Rani!!! Between that and the water heater it looks like a few systems upgrades are in order. So glad it wasn't worse. You acted like a real trooper though and got the situation controlled. Doesn't surprize me a bit. Good luck & stay as warm as you can for now :thumleft:.
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the heater is original to the house (1976) so thats why my uncle is not going to even mess with it ...the whole thing is getting replaced this week
 
4spdragtop said:
I wonder if the hot water heater and furnace incidents are somehow related??
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my uncle thinks its just age ...that heater is from 1976 .....prolly wayyy outdid the normal life span for those.

by next week at this time i will be scrappin it on my metal poopoo pile
 
Glad you and everyone else are okay. Very quick thinking on your part. Sometimes you just have to react no time to waste.
 
norshorblufish said:
Glad you and everyone else are okay. Very quick thinking on your part. Sometimes you just have to react no time to waste.
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i prolly developed fast action moves bcoz i have had countless carb fires and electrical fires with these old mopars :banghead:

even my dart cooked some wires before ....now when i see or smell smoke i go straght for the battery disconnect and shut it down ASAP. LOL
 
Good job Rani and thank God you or anyone else were not hurt. I hope you are keeping a journal because your life would make a very good book.
 
Yikes Rani. You are a quick thinkin' gal. Glad you were able to get it out and everything shut off. I'll bet you're glad you have smoke detectors. They did their job. tmm
 
Rani.. "The Dutchess of Darts, The Keeper of Bolts, The Fearless Firefighter" Good job! Glad no one was hurt and no significant damage.
 
I am now going to keep those 4 things in my glove box from now on... and a flat head screw driver. glad to hear nothing bad happened to the house or you.
 
Boy that power outage at the game went all the way to Colorado or was it Colorado to the Super Bowl? I am glad to hear you are all right and your fast action saved the day. Hooray for the Rani purse collection of goodies. Maybe you need to get a bigger purse and add a fire extiguisher to the collection.
 
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