29 September, 2010
When I walked out the back door early this evening, on my way to feed the pigs, I found myself in a thick cloud of smoke.
For a few seconds, I thought one of our neighbours was burning leaves in his incinerator but realised the wind was coming from the wrong direction and the smoke smelled wrong.
The smoke was coming from the farm on the other side of us, which had smoke pouring from its chimney pot and from beneath its roof slates.
As I watched, a gout of flame shot out the chimney, sending sparks and embers into the sky.
I called the OH through and asked her to call our neighbour, who was at work, as we weren’t sure if her husband was working on the farm or away from it.
While she did that, I ran across the road to get a better look at what was happening.
More flame belched from the chimney as I arrived, but when I looked through the sitting room window I could see the fire in the hearth was burning normally.
Our neighbours looked to have a chimney fire. I shouted across to the OH to explain the situation and she phoned the fire brigade, then called our neighbour again.
A short time later, her husband came jogging up the track from the main farm—arriving a couple of minutes after the flames had died down and most of the smoke had cleared.
He’d seen the smoke but had thought it was somebody burning rubbish and leaves.
By this time there was still smoke seeping from the eaves and from beneath the slates, but the worst appeared to have past.
Our neighbour’s husband checked for hotspots in the walls and along the ceilings, but didn’t find anything. However, there’s no loft space in their house so it was impossible to be sure if the fire had spread or not.
When the fire brigade arrived, having taking a long, meandering route from Huntly instead of the direct route, they removed the fire from the hearth, sprayed water down the chimney and then checked for hot spots with a thermal imaging camera.
They found none.
Fortunately, the fire had not been as bad as it had looked and had not spread from the chimney into the roof space.
On the down side, our neighbours now have a lot of ash and soot in their living room. Oops.
The OH took them a box of chocolates to cheer them up once they’ve finished cleaning up.
And at least it didn’t end like the last fire we had out this way.
(Photo by the Big Lad.)
From the two posts I have read, God really loves to put you in the right time and place to help people. You really have earned your wings twice over in heaven.
Back in the days of coal fires in every house, I remember many a chimney fire. A couple weren’t caught and destroyed the houses.
The “water fairies” do seem to leave a trail of mess and destruction in their wakes, God bless ‘em!
All’s well that ends well……!
I hate the sulphury smell you get when the chimney fire burns in the sooty deposits….