one more cast
Captain
- Joined
- May 6, 2002
- Messages
- 3,143
This afternoon at about 4 o'clock our power went out due to all the snow on the trees. I built a fire in the fire place because the power outage was estimated to last until 10 pm.An hour or so later I went to my Moms to get her generator going for her and wouldn't you know it. I had no gas. So, off to the nearest town with power (about 7 miles away)to fill my gas can. On the way home I get a call from my wife that flames are shooting out of the fireplace into the living room. I tell her to make sure the damper did not somehow close and she tells me she is not in the house, she is at my Moms(because she is watching her baby grand daughter and the house is filling with smoke). She said she put a little water on it (no power= no water)and the flames died down and that she left my daughter there to watch it until I got home. So now I speed up a little. Then a couple minutes later the phone rings again and she says my daughter said the flames got worse so she called the fire dept.<br /> Now I'm driving way to fast for road conditions but made it home before the fire dept. got there and when I opened the glass doors on the fireplace to check the damper it was so hot my gloves melted instantly. I managed to get the doors open and sure enough when my wife closed the screens after putting some wood on the fire she hit the damper and it closed. I got everything under control and had my daughter cancel the FD. Sorry, once they leave they are coming. So now I have a house full of smoke, no power,melted gloves and 10 firemen in my living room. I just thank God that everything turned out OK. The power is back on and tomorrow there will be a safety chain to hold the damper open when a fire is going.
Flames came out and ruined everything around the fireplace...and of course the whole house was full of smoke.<br /><br />I remember the fire department being there literally at least once a month. All the firefighters knew us by name. My grandma would always call because she thought something was wrong when it was nothing. One time she thought we were trying to poison her with the oxygen she had to wear, so she took it off and almost suffocated. Another time she called the fire department because she was out of wine. 
