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We've had a lucky escape!

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We went out early this morning (9am!) to hit Bluewater. After a fun packed shopping trip there we headed home and I wanted to stop at Primark to get something to wear to a fancy dress party on Sunday (50's theme - all that stuff is so fashionable atm too!). So we stopped at Lakeside, I hit Primark and Mum took James downstairs to where a kiddie event was happening, then I sat down there with him for about 1/2 hour whilst he took part in some "events (I'll post more about those later).

 

Then we headed home, we got in at about 20 past 5.

 

I walked in the front door to find the house full of smoke!!!!

 

I could see throught the glass in the hall that it was coming from in front of my sideboard - I rushed round there to find the ashes bucket (plastic) - melted through the bottom half full of red hot ashes!!!!

 

Mum emptied my fire out this morning and left the bucket in front of it. The cleaner had been, she must have picked it up and moved it but not got it as far as the back doorstep. There was obviously no indication when she was here that there were hot ashes in there.

 

Imagine if we had gone out for an even longer day - we could have come home and found the house burned down. The damage is confined to the floorboards immediately under the bucket (which took a really good dousing to finally stop burning) and a burn mark on the sideboard (£30 - Ebay). Mum won't sleep tonight either for the worrying about what might have happened.

2350597542_7a54795471.jpg

 

Oh and the NEW smoke alarm WASN'T GOING OFF!!!!

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Yep its metal bucket time - well we need a new one anyway now we melted the old one!

 

I've no idea why the smoke alarm wasn't going off - I've tested it since I posted the original message and it worked and gave both the smoke and the carbon monoxide warning - then James got out of bed in tears because he thought the house was on fire! At the time we were clearing up and putting the boards out he was getting into his fireman costume but he was obviously aware of the seriousness of the situation. The whole house was smokey - we had to open the windows etc then sit in the hot tub to warm up!

 

The smoke alarm was fairly close to the fire area - the fire was in the "hallway" (its the size of a room) next to my kitchen, the smoke alarm is just outside the door in my kitchen - right outside my boiler room which is in Mums bit of the house - the door was open and Mums house was filled with smoke too. There is another smoke alarm at the top of my stairs but I don't think that one works and TBH there are numerous doors between it and our "risky" areas - we put the new smoke alarm (turns out it wasn't new either - Mum had it in her old house and it used to go off whenever she burned toast!) where we thought it would be most effective. Its about 12 ft from Mums kitchen, next to the door to my kitchen and right outside the boiler room in case of carbon monoxide problems.

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:shock: Just as well you got home when you did and that it wasn't worse.

 

Does you local fire brigade do fire prevention surveys/advice. Might be worth asking to make sure you get the right sort of alarms in the most appropriate places.

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:shock: Just as well you got home when you did and that it wasn't worse.

 

Does you local fire brigade do fire prevention surveys/advice. Might be worth asking to make sure you get the right sort of alarms in the most appropriate places.

 

it would definately be worth pursuing.

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I will see what the fire brigade offer.

 

We have an extinguisher and a blanket - I didn't think we needed either although after pouring 2 litres of water on the floorboards I was starting to wonder if I should go get the extinguisher.

 

Of course Mum grew up with fires - so really should have known better, what worries her is that she meant to take it out but must have got distracted. I've suggested instigating a pouring on water programme when we empty the ashes - makes no difference as we use them on the garden anyway.

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So lucky you were home in time.

 

I always use a plastic bag to clean out the ashes and leave it outside.

(Even though I don't use plastic bags, we still seem to have lots in the house from other people :roll: )

 

I had 20+ bags in the shed waiting to be used as dust baths for the hens :wink:

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I use something like this for my hot ash, it's the safgest way to deal with it.

 

http://www.thefiresideshop.co.uk//category-6265/product-20339//-------Brockham-Ash-Tidy-------.html

 

When the ash is cold, I take it outside and empty it into a large carrier bag (Waitrose or B&Q is ideal) and put the ash in the bin.

 

It's big enough to take two full ash pans,

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