Burning Down The House

[Jim Pemberton]

The thread discussing carbon monoxide poisoning also brought up risks of catching homes on fire.

I'm aware of it happening from improper safety measures during thermal fogging and on location dry cleaning.

Anyone else have stories to share?

 

[GCCLee]

 

[Steve Toburen]

The thread discussing carbon monoxide poisoning also brought up risks of catching homes on fire.

I'm aware of it happening from improper safety measures during thermal fogging and on location dry cleaning.

Anyone else have stories to share?

Aaah, Jim, you are killing me with memories here!

Yeah, one time I burned a condominium display model down to the foundation by placing propane heat to warm it up for drying. Stupid because I let the developer's problem become my problem. You see, the power company had turned off the power due to non-payment of the electricity bill. Fortunately the display model was set off separate from the complex or the whole development would have gone up in flames!

Steve

PS And before everyone piles on telling me how stupid I was I am hereby stipulating I was (am?) an idiot. In fact, much the QuickTIP I emailed out yesterday on Performing "water damage triage" and finding the "sweet spot losses" was based on me reflecting on this incident.

NOTE: Much of the SFS program is based on my bone-headed blunders AND my frantic efforts to recover AND prevent them from happening again!

 

[KevinL]

I lost my first tm to a fire while cleaning so it does happen.

 

[Desk Jockey]

PS And before everyone piles on telling me how stupid I was I am hereby stipulating I was (am?) an idiot.

Ummmmm......

 

[Jim Pemberton]

Many of the stories I've heard are third hand, so I won't relate hazy details, but as we go I'll list a few that I have enough firm information about so that it might help protect others:

The most recent was a large cleaning company that decided to dry clean draperies in a luxury hotel. The design of the building was such that no windows could be opened so that the fumes of the dry cleaning solvent could be exhausted to the outside air. The build up of fumes resulted in a fire, which set off the sprinkler system, which resulted in a water damage loss.

This made the evening news in the city involved, and to the credit of the hotel management, they refused to identify the company, which of course performed all of the needed restoration services free of charge.

The most important thing, of course, was that no one was injured.

Had the company name been released to the media, it might have been far more expensive than just the costs of restoration.

 

[Royal Man]

I lost my first tm to a fire while cleaning so it does happen.

Details? What was the cause? Most I hear about are gasoline leaks or combustibles to close to a heater. (I built a metal shell around three side of my heater to keep combustibles away from it.)

 

[packfancjh]

I had a customer a few years ago that had his tm start on fire due to poor repair work on a carburetor by another mechanic that dripped onto the heat exchanger. Luckily he was at home cleaning and there was a fire extinguisher in his garage so he was able to minimize the damage.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

Here's another one:

A cleaner had dry cleaned a piece of furniture for a customer. Those that clean with solvents know that until the fabric dries it tends to look darker. As the cleaner was leaving, the customer was complaining that the furniture still looked dirty.

The cleaner told her that it would look better once they had dried, but she kept after him about the appearance.

In frustration, he told her to throw the cushions in her dryer and see for herself.

That caught the dryer on fire. The rest of the story is long and ugly for other reasons, but in this case at least the fire was put out quickly and the damage was limited to the laundry area.

 

[J Scott W]

A friend was cleaning carpets in an empty two story rental unit. Drove the PTO equipped van under a carpet. Engine of the van caught fire due to faulty wiring in the van. This in turn caught the apartment on fire. Made the local news. He also got the fire restoration work. After almost 2 years in court, the manufacturer of the van had to pay for van, truckmount and damage to apartment. This was in metro Atlanta several years ago.

 

[GCCLee]

Olson sell fire extinguishers?

 

[Brian H]

Thankfully this is one of those threads that I don't have first hand experience with....





...knock on wood...

 

[Jim Martin]

Thankfully this is one of those threads that I don't have first hand experience with....





...knock on wood...

same here....

 

[The Great Oz]

We developed a mix of detergent and solvents that could be used to very effectively clean jute, sisal and other water sensitive carpet. Unfortunately one of the components was alcohol. A tech cleaning a boutique women's wear store used an outlet that was faulty. When the tech unplugged the guts of the outlet came out and the arc caught the carpet on fire. Singed a lot of product, but the building owner took responsibility because he was the one that "fixed" the outlet.

Had a friend that cleaned draperies on-location start a fire when he sprayed OMS into the baseboard heater. Newly cleaned draperies went up pretty quickly. Lots of smoke damage but didn't burn the house down. Electricity used to be cheap here, so there are still a lot of baseboard heaters in use. Don't know how he managed to go so long before his first fire.

A friend was cleaning carpets in an empty two story rental unit. Drove the PTO equipped van under a carpet (carport?). Engine of the van caught fire due to faulty wiring in the van. This in turn caught the apartment on fire. Made the local news. He also got the fire restoration work. After almost 2 years in court, the manufacturer of the van had to pay for van, truckmount and damage to apartment. This was in metro Atlanta several years ago.

Ford van with twin tanks? Our Fords had two problems. #1 - They went to a plastic line that would swell and fail when it got hot. Ford stopped honoring warranties on gas powered vans used with PTOs rather than go back to a better fuel line material. #2 - No matter which tank you were running from, the fuel return wouldn't always go back to that tank. Two full tanks would result in one tank overflowing gas back up the filler pipe. We had to replace the wood expansion joints in a concrete driveway due to a fire, but our tech was able to move the van before it burned. Ford did not GAS.

 

[Buck1955]

I had a front brake pad lock up and by the time I got back to the shop, the brake was on fire. Had an extinguisher handy so it got put out quick. Then had to take caliper off and pry pads apart to get it to repair shop.

Bane Clean loves pics of TM fires.

 

[Brian H]

Okay, maybe I do have a few stories....

I had one crew once move a lamp onto a loveseat and a different crew move a lamp onto a bed. The problem was they were both on timers and later that evening... The loveseat we replaced. The bed we replaced the custom bed cover, sheets and mattress cover. In both cases, we got off cheap!! It could have been a whole lot worse!

One other time we cleaned a home that had a loose electrical outlet in the center of a room. It was just a wire run from the basement, through the floor and attached to a outlet, no box at all. We cleaned the carpet,including right up next to the outlet and then placed the sofa back over top of the outlet. The moisture from the cleaning caused the exposed wires to arc and started the sofa on fire. We noticed it right away, so not a lot of damage. The fire department came out and the Fire Chief chewed out the homeowner for the obvious fire risk!! The sofa was ready for the garbage before we ever got there and the carpet wasn't much better. The homeowner turned it over to their insurance company and they tried to subrogate the claim. I referred them to the Fire Chief and never heard back from them.

 

[Doug Cox]

My first close call was a cracked silencer on a Hydramaster CDS which caught the plywood fllooring on fire . Painter I knew came over from the home next door to let me know. No damage. Second close call was a clogged catalytic converter on a new van. Caught the wiring around the transmission on fire. Although rare, fires do occur and parking inside a structure isn't worth the risk.

 

[juniorc82]

I was cleaning a vacant with my current back up machine a small steam action truckmount. The chimp who helped me set up the hose had allowed the vacuum hose to get kinked and somehow a big kink in the hose came to rest on the manifold of the truckmount in between the hx and the engine. Something in my gut told me to go look at the van, walked out onto the balcony (3rd floor unit) and saw black smoke billowing out of my van. By the time I got down there to see what it was the kinked up section of hose that was laying on the machine had flames coming off of it. Idled the machine downand used the purge/priming hose to squirt som water on the flames and shut the machine down. Bought a fire ex that night. Had I waited 3- 5more minutes it woudave ben toast. That unit doesn't hae a fuel tap either, you just put the gas in to of machine. Had the flames hit th gas can it would hve been a done deal.