Shortly after my last post, there was a fire in my house!
We were in the kitchen and heard a noise in the bathroom. So we walked around the corner and looked in. My first reaction was: where did all of those gnats come from? It looked as though a nest of gnats exploded in the bathroom. Then I looked at the floor. The plastic grating for the ceiling fan had fallen onto the shower mat and was on fire. I looked up at the ceiling. The fan was on fire too! I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the fire extinguisher and within seconds had both small fires put out.
(At first, I told Kelly to get the fire extinguisher but she didn’t know where it was.)
With the fire out, all that was left was to clean up. At this point, with the exception of some smoke damage in a small area around the fan in the ceiling, there is no obvious damage, and other than the smell, you wouldn’t even know a fire took place.
It looks as though the cause was that the fan overheated.
Some pictures:
The fan cover on the carpet after I sprayed it with the fire extinguisher
The smoke damage around the ceiling fan
A wider shot of the smoke damage
I spoke with my landlord. He’s calling some electricians to see if he can get someone in to replace the fan and check the wiring.
Interestingly, the smoke alarm, which is just outside the bathroom, never went off. It doesn’t look like it’s working, which is odd since I replaced the battery before the last inspection several months back.
All-in-all, it made for an exciting morning. I suppose it could have been worse. We might not have been home. But if we weren’t home the light wouldn’t have been on and the fan wouldn’t have been on and so it wouldn’t have happened. We might have been in a different part of the house, but we still would have heard the fan cover falling to the floor. I guess the best thing is that I had a fully charged fire extinguisher in the house. I think we could have put the fire out with water if I didn’t have the fire extinguisher, but it made it a lot easier and quicker.
And if nothing else, it makes for an interesting blog post.
*This blog entry is dedicated to he11o_sunshine, who knows why.
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