Trailer Fire

[jcappe]

Last night about 9:30 when I got done loading the OWB I stepped inside the house to take off my coveralls and my Fire pager went off. Dispatch said it was a trailer fire. I couldn't quite pinpoint the address (around here that means I wasn't sure who's place it was) so I called a friend on the way that lives in that area. When I called him he said he was standing there watching it burn and that he is the one that called it in. He then says that Bill is still in the trailer according to his sister who lives across the road. This totally changes things. My friend said that the whole thing is pretty well ingulfed in flames so I told him to stay the hell out of there knowing if someone is still in there it is to late and not worth risking it. By the time we got there the fire had gone completely thought the place. The cause has not been confirmed but it is pretty well known that the fire started by the wood stove from how everything ended up. Unfortunately the man who lived there was infact in there and had been overcome from the smoke and fire. It is thought that he was sleeping in a chair. Here's where the forum comes in. As we were working on the outside trying to get the flames out. There sat the very green rounds of wood and his splitting maul. From the looks of his wood storage area he was out of wood and evidently started to burn the green wood as he split it because he had no stock of dry wood anywhere else.
Sorry for the long post but it scares the hell out of me to think of people doing this and I wanted to bring it to your attention. If all else fails either pay for some dry wood or pay the gas man. It's not worth your or your families life to get around it by burning the green stuff.

 

[matt9923]

That's to bad, what is the problem with wet would making his trailer catch fire? Ill i see it do is not burn. or is it cause the creosote catches fire?

 

[isaaccarlson]

creosote builds up in the chimney and then ignites....

VERY BAD if the owner ran single wall pipe through his wall.....

 

[keving]

very sad.....I too am on a volunteer fire dept. and i see alot of mistakes by people who are either desperate or un-educated about the dangers of burning unseasoned wood.heck i have a neighbor who goes to the woods,cuts down a tree, blocks it up,and pitches it down the basement and starts burning it the same day! then he wants to know why I dont have heavy white smoke coming out of the chimney like he does???

 

[flotek]

im glad you posted this ,we need a reminder on here !!!! this is the time of year guys run low on their good stuff and start burning junk and green wood ..i would think looking around and seeing the fresh cut green wood in his yard would send chills up my spine after knowing he just died as a result of it .sad especially when its totally preventable! people need to get educated on woodburning.being prepared is free ...it doesnt cost anything to let your wood sit and age

 

[matt9923]

very sad.....I too am on a volunteer fire dept. and i see alot of mistakes by people who are either desperate or un-educated about the dangers of burning unseasoned wood.heck i have a neighbor who goes to the woods,cuts down a tree, blocks it up,and pitches it down the basement and starts burning it the same day! then he wants to know why I dont have heavy white smoke coming out of the chimney like he does???

He must have it wide open all day.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Another cause of mobile home fires is from oil furnaces. Mobile home furnaces have very small fireboxes, around the size of a gallon paint can. The proper primary control used on a mobile home furnace will shut off the burner if it does not see a flame in 15 sec. But, I lost count of the times I would go work on one, owner said "I hit the reset button only once", and I made the repairs, and had sphincter shock when I started it up. My dad and I walked away from one that had oil seeping out of the bottom of the furnace from repeated attempts to start it. I've had firemen involved on them a few times as well...

 

[CrappieKeith]

It is a very sad thing indeed.
I'm recalling many postings here about cutting corners and doing things on the cheap.
This guy cut a corner in not getting his wood dry.
We all see where that got him.
I totally get why people do what they do & they do do some weird things that in some cases are pretty dangerous.
I know that I get "well your a salesman" when I'm trying to get someone to do the right thing.
Everyone does have an opinion,but I'd never steer someone knowingly into a bad situation.
I'd bet if an inspection is done & I'm sure it will be that there were more things to his install that are off too not just green wood.

Cutting corners....doing things on the cheap can and will kill you when your heating with wood.

 

[Mike PA]

There is a house that I drive past every day on my way to work and just wonder when it will go up in flames. They have their wood supply sitting outside in the mud and snow. Can't tell if it is still green or not, but I guarentee it is plenty wet. All I ever see is white smoke from their chimney - which is the next problem. Looks to be single wall that they attached to the exterior of their existing masonry chimney, which has crumbled. The top of their "new" metal chimney has broken off (looks like it rusted off - was up there bent at about 60º five feet from the top for two months before it finally broke the rest of the way) and has black staining down the outside of the pipe.

Your story sounds too much like the future of this place. Hope I am wrong and it is better than it looks.

 

[1harlowr]

I'm an insurance agent. Last week went to a funeral for a 3 year old that was killed in a trailer fire that I insured. Wasn't caused by a wood stove. A chimney fire in a trailer can't really be put out. Trailers go up just to fast. The scared little boy hid under the sink in the bathroom when the fire started. Fire and smoke spread so quick he couldn't be found.
Be extra careful on WB installs in a mobile home

 

[mtfallsmikey]

I'm an insurance agent. Last week went to a funeral for a 3 year old that was killed in a trailer fire that I insured. Wasn't caused by a wood stove. A chimney fire in a trailer can't really be put out. Trailers go up just to fast. The scared little boy hid under the sink in the bathroom when the fire started. Fire and smoke spread so quick he couldn't be found.
Be extra careful on WB installs in a mobile home

All that particleboard..burns super fast and hot.

 

[Mike Van]

Sad story - Most people won't believe what you tell them because they've never seen it first hand. Or "so & so did it that way for years"

 

[CrappieKeith]

There is a house that I drive past every day on my way to work and just wonder when it will go up in flames. They have their wood supply sitting outside in the mud and snow. Can't tell if it is still green or not, but I guarentee it is plenty wet. All I ever see is white smoke from their chimney - which is the next problem. Looks to be single wall that they attached to the exterior of their existing masonry chimney, which has crumbled. The top of their "new" metal chimney has broken off (looks like it rusted off - was up there bent at about 60º five feet from the top for two months before it finally broke the rest of the way) and has black staining down the outside of the pipe.

Your story sounds too much like the future of this place. Hope I am wrong and it is better than it looks.

Not that I'm a fan of delving into others business ,but if it looks bad it probally is.If there are kids living there a simple report to child services could get someone out there to inspect and if it is deemed unsafe there are programs available to get monies if they are low income folks to have a new system put in that would be safe.
Mike...you may be their saving grace!

 

[Mike PA]

Not that I'm a fan of delving into others business ,but if it looks bad it probally is.If there are kids living there a simple report to child services could get someone out there to inspect and if it is deemed unsafe there are programs available to get monies if they are low income folks to have a new system put in that would be safe.
Mike...you may be their saving grace!

Well, I've thought about what I could reallistically do. I don't know if they have kids or not. I've never seen them there, but that means nothing. I've thought about stopping by, but I don't know them or know anyone that does know them. I don't think it would go well, or at least there are too many scenarios of things ending poorly, so I have done nothing. A call to a codes officer or fire company may end up poorly for them also and cost them money they don't have. Generally speaking, people around here don't take too kindly to people butting in where they don't belong. If anyone has any ideas I'd consider them.

 

[MostShady1]

Well, I've thought about what I could reallistically do. I don't know if they have kids or not. I've never seen them there, but that means nothing. I've thought about stopping by, but I don't know them or know anyone that does know them. I don't think it would go well, or at least there are too many scenarios of things ending poorly, so I have done nothing. A call to a codes officer or fire company may end up poorly for them also and cost them money they don't have. Generally speaking, people around here don't take too kindly to people butting in where they don't belong. If anyone has any ideas I'd consider them.

Contacting a building inspector or making an anonymous report may be frowned upon, initially, but you can't put a price on peoples safety. Buildings can be repaired/rebuilt, money can be earned again, but you can't replace a human life. Let your concience be your guide.

 

[BuddhaKat]

We usually only burn pine in my wood stove and it's all adequately seasoned. We have a mobile home, too. I don't get much buildup in our pipe though. Mostly only some fuzz. I try to clean out the pipe at the start of each season, but I've never done it more than once a year. Sometimes I skip a year. If I hear sounds from the pipe I just give it a whack. Sometimes stiff falls down, sometimes not. I've never had anything thicker than 1/8th of an inch come down. Most years though, it's only about a half inch of fuzz.

Typically, I load up the stove with big wood, douse it with diesel and toss in a match. Instant nice fire. I've even had times when the stove was so hot that it was glowing red when the lights were off. I try not to let that happen and I'll address it if I catch it.

We have a double wall, 8" pipe. Am I risking my house?

 

[indiansprings]

Our best wood cutomer insist on nothing but the greenest oak possible for his Hardy. Thank goodness it's away from his buiding with a heavy wall pipe for a flue. I asked him last year if he ever had flue fires, Oh hell yea, was his answer. This year we drove by after a basketball game, looked like an F-4 in full afterburner. It would scare the hell of me to have it happen on a regular basis. It's sad the conditions you see in some of the places we deliver wood.
We even know of one family that has a pellet stove but can't afford to buy pellets to heat their trailer, so they are chopping up little 3"x6" chunks and putting in the little pellet tray and burning them, the dad sleeps by the stove, when it starts getting cold he wakes up and starts another couple of pieces.

 

[WetBehindtheEar]

The scared little boy hid under the sink in the bathroom when the fire started. Fire and smoke spread so quick he couldn't be found...

That's EXACTLY what my 2.5year-old would do & it gives me the heebie-jeebies, willies, trots, shudders, you name it.

I burn in a sealed insert, SS flue in masonry chimney, seasoned wood, burn really hot for 45min to start, no creosote around the chimney cap...I've got smoke/CO detectors in all of the obvious spots in communal areas...

But not in our bedrooms.

I've decided I'll be putting them in this weekend.

damn... poor kid.

 

[JFerg65]

It is posts like this one that make me sit down and rethink/check my set up. We too have CO detectors and smoke detectors in every room of the house. My wood stove has a stainless flue going up a masonry chimney that was in excellent condition before the install. I also clean the chimney every month like clock work.

I'm down to about a cord and a half of good stuff for the season. I have plenty of standing dead (no bark) in the woods. If I need to get some of that in, I'll clean the chimney twice a month through the end of the season.

 

[BuddhaKat]

I think they should teach escaping a fire to kindergartners. There's a right thing to do and a wrong thing. I mean, do people actually realize that they can break out a window to escape? Most adults should be able to figure it out, but it's clearly something a 5 year old can do, if they knew how.