24 Years Ago ... about now

[MikeBjerum]

Trying to get some work done, but it is our weird anniversary day.  Even though all turned out well, and in the end there were so many blessings it is still a downer date.

At about 1:30 pm, Monday, July 10, 1989 I came home from a meeting concerning the grasshopper infestation that was destroying our soybean crops due to the drought.  I parked the pick up in the driveway in front of the house (I normally parked it behind the house in the shade or next to one of the sheds), ran in the house and changed into my grimy work clothes.  I went out, hopped in the tractor, and headed a mile down the road to cultivate beans.  This was the last time I used our home.

Everything was going well.  I had done a good job of rock picking, so I didn't need to stop rolling all afternoon, and the cultivator needed zero adjusting.  I just rolled along ripping out the weeds, and admiring the beautiful day.  Beautiful yes, but it was hot!  Suddenly my ambulance and fire pagers and radio started making racket.  My first thought was that it was 6:00 test time, and I needed to get home for chores and have supper with the family.  Then I realized it was only 5:30!  After five sets of tones, not a good thing to hear that many, the next thing I heard was "Cottonwood County Sheriff ... Mountain Lake Fire, Mountain Lake Ambulance, Bingham Lake Fire, Windom Amubulance, Windom Fire ... House fire ... Mike Bjerum farm ... Smoke showing ... Unlocated Occupant"

I looked east at the yard, but because of the trees I couldn't see anything.  I shoved the throttle up, forgot to lift the cultivator wiping out a quarter mile of beans, and when I reached the road I just about ran a car in the ditch, because I was more concerned about what I was going to find than the twenty four feet wide piece of iron on my three point.

If you understand the term backdraft you will know what we had going.  The house was closed up tight with the A/C running, and the fire was starved for oxygen.  There was smoke puffing out of the eaves, around every window and door, and even through the siding seams in several places.  When they vented the house you could see flashes of flames jump across the ceilings of every room.

Good news:  We all survived!  The fire had been burning in the walls and between first and second floor for several days before it broke out into all three bedrooms.  Fire Marshall said if it had broken through while we were sleeping the wife and I would have had a 50/50 chance from first floor, and out kids upstairs would be dead.

Three firemen were taken to the hospital for severe heat issues.  They would come out of the house and roll into the drop tanks to cool themselves.  Ambulance staff would climb in the tanks to take their SCBA and turnout gear off so they could cool down and regain strength.





Son's Bedroom


Daughter's Bedroom


Our Bedroom Closet where the bad wiring started ever thing in the walls and ceiling

[billt]

That had to be horrible to go through. I can't imagine losing everything like that, and having to start over.

[red364]

Wow!, glad nobody got hurt!

[fightingquaker13]

Yep, that's some scary stuff. Its one thing to have a brain fart and leave a burner on or something, but a little electrical fire festering for days that jumps u[ out of nowhere? That is just plain scary.

[kmitch200]

Glad all family was out and nobody got hurt. Sucks to lose all your stuff but at least it was goods and not lives.

Flashovers are NASTY! I remember the days that we could get on top of houses without having SCBAs on/facepiece in place.
Those days are long gone - thank God. I wish they would have gotten rid of the "glamour" of leather lungers 10 yrs before I got hired. ('78)

[Sponsor]

[crusader rabbit]

Electrical fires are truly freaky.  We didn't lose a house, ore even most of one, but here's our story... 

Around the first of the year, 2002, I had just returned home from Baypines VA Hospital with a newly installed titanium hip.  I was having a great deal of trouble getting around with a walker, and I was still in a great deal of pain.  (They do a much better job these days.)  It was a Sunday morning and Bunny and I were planning to relax for a lazy morning, just reading the newspaper while remaining in bed.   Bunny got up, wrapped herself in a robe and went out to get the paper.

When she came back in, she mentioned that someone must have lit their fireplace because she could smell wood smoke.  She said she thought it was a little strange because she could smell the smoke inside, but not outside.  (Credit the pain killers for the delayed synapses--I really should have put two and two together.)

We read the paper for awhile and I happened to look out the bedroom door into the hallway where I noticed visible haze or smoke accented by the sunlight.

We both got into motion, me on my walker, and Bunny on two good feet.  I thought the smoke might be coming from one of the power supplies in the office, so I tried to check, but found nothing.

Finally, Bunny commented that she could smell the smoke more strongly right there in the hall.  I confirmed her impression and pointed out the the attic access was immediately above us. 

Bunny got a chair and poked her head into the attic space.  "We've got a fire," she said.

I called the FD and they arrived in minutes to address the issue.

Turned out the previous owner had installed a new air handler there in the attic and wired it to the existing aluminum wiring using wire nuts.  Aluminum was popular at the time the house was built since it was less expensive than copper.  Over time, the two dissimilar metals got hot enough to spit off the wire nut, and the twisted pair fell onto one of the rafters where it rested, perhaps for months. 

Over time, the electricity heated the wood until the wood was carbonized to the extent it became a reasonable conductor of electricity.  Then it got hot and smoldered, perhaps for weeks, maybe even for months, before it burst into flame.

Fire department instructed us to get out of the house with all the animals, and we managed.  When they took a first look at the fire, they began spreading plastic sheeting over the living room furniture so nothing got either dirty or smokey.  The chief even came out and told us that although the fire was out, they would like to cut a hole in the ceiling to make absolutely sure.  He assured me that the cut would be straight and square and easily repaired, and so it was.

The worst thing about any of this was that electricity needed to be cut off to the house, and we needed to live in a hotel for a couple of weeks until we got it repaired and inspected.

Still, we all got out without injury, and I regularly thank God for those firefighters, asking that He keeps them safe from harm.

So, I understand the feelings evoked by these sorts of anniversaries.  But, it's always good to remember that property and things can be replaced.  Life is much more precious.

Crusader Rabbit