House Fire

[razr390]

House we were renting had a house fire on 11/22. We were awake when the HVAC closet had some sort of electrical short. We are all safe. House is fucked. More to come. AMA

[SAWCE]

House we were renting had a house fire on 11/22. We were awake when the HVAC closet had some sort of electrical short. We are all safe. House is fucked. More to come. AMA

Oh fuck. Glad you’re all safe and it wasn’t middle of the night when you were sleeping. How bad is the damage to the house and how much damage done to your personal property. Assuming you had decent renters insurance?

[wap]

House we were renting had a house fire on 11/22. We were awake when the HVAC closet had some sort of electrical short. We are all safe. House is fucked. More to come. AMA

Oh fuck. Glad you’re all safe and it wasn’t middle of the night when you were sleeping. How bad is the damage to the house and how much damage done to your personal property. Assuming you had decent renters insurance?

Holy fuck. That must have been terrifying. How did the handle it. Very glad you're all ok. Where are you living now? Did you lose anything?

[Tar]

Jeez man, another forum member skirting what could have been a near death event. I'm glad you and your family are okay Rudy!

This might be a good opportunity to discuss house fires and how to reduce risks. Have we all been keeping up with cleaning the vents from our dryers? Don't forget bathroom ceiling fans as well, I replaced all of mine in the house we are living in now, but I think I'm going to put them on timers as well. I saw a family home go down in flames up the street from me, nobody hurt because it caught fire during the day thankfully. It started from the spontaneous combustion of a ceiling fan in a bathroom.

[SAWCE]

Jeez man, another forum member skirting what could have been a near death event. I'm glad you and your family are okay Rudy!

This might be a good opportunity to discuss house fires and how to reduce risks. Have we all been keeping up with cleaning the vents from our dryers? Don't forget bathroom ceiling fans as well, I replaced all of mine in the house we are living in now, but I think I'm going to put them on timers as well. I saw a family home go down in flames up the street from me, nobody hurt because it caught fire during the day thankfully. It started from the spontaneous combustion of a ceiling fan in a bathroom.

My smoke/co2 detectors started doing a low batter beep this morning so that’s being replaced right now. Different from vent fans, but I try to be good about vacuuming the dust off of the ceiling fan blades on a monthly bases.. that shit gets nasty.

[golftdibrad1]

House we were renting had a house fire on 11/22. We were awake when the HVAC closet had some sort of electrical short. We are all safe. House is fucked. More to come. AMA

Daym man glad you all are ok.

Where have yall had to move to? That sucks it was during thanksgiving week too 11/22 is my anniversary, and we had another wedding that day. Sorry it was a bad day for yall.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Woa...this is terrifying and really glad you guys are all OK. Like Mario said, this is a great opportunity for us all to take a look at our own fire safety.

Story time...

We bought our last house (a 1910 4-square) and it had no smoke detectors. I figured I'd get around to it one day, and one day came faster than I expected. 3 months after we closed on the house, it was Christmas day night and we had a fun party with family and friends. Pretty we stumbled upstairs and went to sleep. We were woken up by the cat batting the wife in the face and the bedroom with filled with smoke along the ceiling. Wife wakes me up in a panic, and we head downstairs to find my liquor cabinet (an old ice chest that was original to the house) half on fire. We had one of those stupid candle stick wreath things, and one of our friends lit a candle stick without us noticing. It burned down, tipped over, lit the wreath on fire, then lit the ice box. Our live Christmas tree was 4' away, and flames were licking the tips of the tree when I ran to get a bowl full of water and doused the blaze. We were minutes from the tree going up, and with it right next to the stairs, we would have been trapped upstairs with no way out. Thank goodness for the cat's sense of self-preservation.

I couldn't sleep after that, and drove to Home Depot at 5am and waited for them to open. Went in, bought 5 Nest smoke/co detectors and with the smell of burned in the air, I equipped the entire house in 3 hours. When we moved into our current house, same problem...no smoke detectors. I replaced them all the day after we moved in.

Fires are rare but can be devastating. It's so easy for us to just it, but that's risky AF.

[golftdibrad1]

Woa...this is terrifying and really glad you guys are all OK. Like Mario said, this is a great opportunity for us all to take a look at our own fire safety.



We bought our last house (a 1910 4-square) and it had no smoke detectors. I figured I'd get around to it one day, and one day came faster than I expected. 3 months after we closed on the house, it was Christmas day night and we had a fun party with family and friends. Pretty we stumbled upstairs and went to sleep. We were woken up by the cat batting the wife in the face and the bedroom with filled with smoke along the ceiling. Wife wakes me up in a panic, and we head downstairs to find my liquor cabinet (an old ice chest that was original to the house) half on fire. We had one of those stupid candle stick wreath things, and one of our friends lit a candle stick without us noticing. It burned down, tipped over, lit the wreath on fire, then lit the ice box. Our live Christmas tree was 4' away, and flames were licking the tips of the tree when I ran to get a bowl full of water and doused the blaze. We were minutes from the tree going up, and with it right next to the stairs, we would have been trapped upstairs with no way out. Thank goodness for the cat's sense of self-preservation.

I couldn't sleep after that, and drove to Home Depot at 5am and waited for them to open. Went in, bought 5 Nest smoke/co detectors and with the smell of burned in the air, I equipped the entire house in 3 hours. When we moved into our current house, same problem...no smoke detectors. I replaced them all the day after we moved in.

Fires are rare but can be devastating. It's so easy for us to just it, but that's risky AF.

Holy shit! Thats scary. That said, its was probaly the fuckin cat that knocked the shit over to begin with to punish you for moving again.


We also have an old house (1930 we think) and it also had no smoke/co detectors. It was noted on the inspection so we had them install some. Turns out they were mostly co only.

I have put in real deal 10 year life smoke detectors. And in the rental units too...because no way I'm relying on them to change batteries. That was an expensive costco trip but with an old bubble frame house a necessity.

As an ex ametur/hobby racer fire is the one thing that legit scared the shit out of me.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Woa...this is terrifying and really glad you guys are all OK. Like Mario said, this is a great opportunity for us all to take a look at our own fire safety.



We bought our last house (a 1910 4-square) and it had no smoke detectors. I figured I'd get around to it one day, and one day came faster than I expected. 3 months after we closed on the house, it was Christmas day night and we had a fun party with family and friends. Pretty we stumbled upstairs and went to sleep. We were woken up by the cat batting the wife in the face and the bedroom with filled with smoke along the ceiling. Wife wakes me up in a panic, and we head downstairs to find my liquor cabinet (an old ice chest that was original to the house) half on fire. We had one of those stupid candle stick wreath things, and one of our friends lit a candle stick without us noticing. It burned down, tipped over, lit the wreath on fire, then lit the ice box. Our live Christmas tree was 4' away, and flames were licking the tips of the tree when I ran to get a bowl full of water and doused the blaze. We were minutes from the tree going up, and with it right next to the stairs, we would have been trapped upstairs with no way out. Thank goodness for the cat's sense of self-preservation.

I couldn't sleep after that, and drove to Home Depot at 5am and waited for them to open. Went in, bought 5 Nest smoke/co detectors and with the smell of burned in the air, I equipped the entire house in 3 hours. When we moved into our current house, same problem...no smoke detectors. I replaced them all the day after we moved in.

Fires are rare but can be devastating. It's so easy for us to just it, but that's risky AF.

Holy shit! Thats scary. That said, its was probaly the fuckin cat that knocked the shit over to begin with to punish you for moving again.


We also have an old house (1930 we think) and it also had no smoke/co detectors. It was noted on the inspection so we had them install some. Turns out they were mostly co only.

I have put in real deal 10 year life smoke detectors. And in the rental units too...because no way I'm relying on them to change batteries. That was an expensive costco trip but with an old bubble frame house a necessity.

As an ex ametur/hobby racer fire is the one thing that legit scared the shit out of me.

I suggested to the wife that the cat did it to us on purpose, but THE CAT WOULD NEVER



Our house was a balloon frame house as well, that shit is scary with fires, just no.

How's your fire extinguisher game? Costco has some pretty decent deals on fire extinguisher packages, I bought one that was a 3 pack of house, garage, and car. One is under the kitchen sink, one is hanging next to the door in the garage, and the third is in the boat. I should pick up a small one for the S10 because that thing is pretty old. I check them every season to make sure they're still charged.

[golftdibrad1]

Holy shit! Thats scary. That said, its was probaly the fuckin cat that knocked the shit over to begin with to punish you for moving again.


We also have an old house (1930 we think) and it also had no smoke/co detectors. It was noted on the inspection so we had them install some. Turns out they were mostly co only.

I have put in real deal 10 year life smoke detectors. And in the rental units too...because no way I'm relying on them to change batteries. That was an expensive costco trip but with an old bubble frame house a necessity.

As an ex ametur/hobby racer fire is the one thing that legit scared the shit out of me.

I suggested to the wife that the cat did it to us on purpose, but THE CAT WOULD NEVER



Our house was a balloon frame house as well, that shit is scary with fires, just no.

How's your fire extinguisher game? Costco has some pretty decent deals on fire extinguisher packages, I bought one that was a 3 pack of house, garage, and car. One is under the kitchen sink, one is hanging next to the door in the garage, and the third is in the boat. I should pick up a small one for the S10 because that thing is pretty old. I check them every season to make sure they're still charged.

Its decent; I gave an extinguisher to each rental and told them NOT to store in tiny galley kitchen. Ours is in kitchen but far from stove. I should stick another near the basement entry since i have NG appliances down there too.

[Desertbreh]

House we were renting had a house fire on 11/22. We were awake when the HVAC closet had some sort of electrical short. We are all safe. House is fucked. More to come. AMA

Sorry about this, obviously glad about the safe. What now?

[razr390]

So, on October 30 we wrote to LL because the air conditioner wasn't, well, conditioning. This time it was cooler out so we realized that while it stopped blowing cold, it also wouldn't blow hot. LL calls home warranty company, they send a tech out, states unit needs to be replaced because the outdoor unit and indoor unit are mismatched, and it has a coil leak. COOL. Then 2 weeks later we get this major nasty weather including cold front (talking like high 30's low 40's LOWS and mid 50's HIGHS in San Antonio, and CLOUDY/grey all day. At night we would need heat and the LL said "oh the system has emergency/auxiliary heat, look for that option."

House had a Nest thermostat and I googled how to access that function. "Auxiliary heat lockout, the thermostat will determine when to turn it on based on aLgOrIthM" fine. So we turned the heat on. Eventually, the system turns on the auxiliary heat function, and it worked! However, it would require the system to run for some time doing "nothing" trying to convince the heat pump to work. Once it tries long enough with no change in thermostat temp, it kicks on the heat.

A few nights of that, and then comes the night of 11/22. We put kiddo to sleep. One cat was upstairs in our bed (his nightly ritual) and he waits for us to come to bed. Other cat was with us downstairs and we decided to watch Elf. Normally after I put kiddo to sleep, my wife either works on her craft stuff or she goes downstairs to chill. I usually "wait for kiddo to fall asleep" in our bed, and sometimes that ends up with me falling asleep too.

Anyways, we are sitting on couch watching movie, eating some food, and then we hear what I can describe as a popcorn noise. I thought it was the cat fucking up the carpet upstairs, and then our cat with us BOLTS UP from laying down, LASER focuses on the stairs, and SPRINTS up. I think they're gonna go fight and wake the kiddo, so I run after her.

I get to the top of the stairs and I hear the popping sound and I don't see any of the cats. I look across the loft at the back wall of it and see sparks/flashing behind the door (through the gaps of the door) and I am like "OH, FUCKIN.. NOPE" yell downstairs "BABE CALL 911, THERE'S A FIRE" and then I get the kiddo (she was scared by being woken up, but not due to smoke/fire) and ran downstairs. Wife in her adrenaline brings me a pot of water and I said THAT WON'T HELP. She calls 911, tells them our address, we open the garage door in case we need to get the car out, and she waits outside with kiddo.

I run back in to get our fire suppression/extinguisher (its one of those spray ones, mostly for kitchen fires, but my instincts/adrenaline just takes me to where they're at) and I try to go upstairs to find the cats, realize I should probably not touch the door knob/open the door barehanded so I go back downstairs to get oven mitt, and then I go back upstairs and there's smoke now filling the entire second floor/loft. Look under bed for cats, can't find them. Go downstairs and wife is just distraught worried about the cats... I go up once more and realize that I cannot see my hand if I held it a few inches in front of me. I prayed that their self-preservation instincts keep them low.

Fire department responds in under 5 minutes, which we are so thankful for. They go and do their thing. The final determination was that the power supply box leading to the air handler unit in the HVAC closet might've shorted, but that's just at a quick glance. They won't fully inspect the unit or do forensics at the lab. Investigator said if it was running aux/electrical or running for longer (aka heat pump failure to turn on auxiliary heat) it could've contributed to overloading/working the power supply box; if the fuse was original they just erode/chip/etc. over time so it probably was literally flinging lightning bolts inside the supply box, melted and caught fire.

The fire itself was mostly contained to the HVAC closet and the 4 walls that connect to other parts of the house (specifically one wall of our master closet, two to an adjacent bedroom which is my wife's office, and then the loft wall. Whatever wasn't damaged by the fire was completely damaged by the smoke, or the water from the firefighting. Every air vent on 2nd floor was also smashed to ensure heat/flame wasn't spreading. House is completely fucked. FD estimated $60-80k+ in damages. Inspector/adjuster said probably more.

We are in a hotel (well, wife and kiddo went to Florida but will come back soon) until 12/15, our renter's insurance paid us out right away (thank god) and we are now just going day by day to salvage what we can. We are obviously breaking the lease (well, mutually) and getting our deposit/move in costs minus the first month back. We also found a new place like 6 houses away in the same neighborhood to rent and are in the application process of it. Cats are fine, we found them once the fire was out, cleverly hiding in full self preservation mode. One of them smelled like BBQ for a few days.

I have a junk hauler contact who is taking whatever is unsalvageable in his trailer and takes it to the dump for like $60. Returned the couch to Costco for our money back, and just saving whatever we can and packing it in those heavy duty Costco containers. Clothes will be washed at some point, but not right now.

What a mess. This was an accident, but we are still obviously at some point upset with LL because this issue took so long that once they would've replaced the unit it might not have happened. We just want to move into the new place and settle in before we even dedicate more braincells to trying to figure out what we could do legally beyond it.

[Tar]

Rudy,

Lots there to dissect, I need to analyze the situation and put a few countermeasures in place at my house(s). For one, a fire alarm in the furnace room should be a MUST! That place shouldn't have passed electrical inspection as well. What the actual fuck, lightning bolts before a fuse/breaker goes? What year is it, 1888?

[Desertbreh]

Holy shit! Thats scary. That said, its was probaly the fuckin cat that knocked the shit over to begin with to punish you for moving again.


We also have an old house (1930 we think) and it also had no smoke/co detectors. It was noted on the inspection so we had them install some. Turns out they were mostly co only.

I have put in real deal 10 year life smoke detectors. And in the rental units too...because no way I'm relying on them to change batteries. That was an expensive costco trip but with an old bubble frame house a necessity.

As an ex ametur/hobby racer fire is the one thing that legit scared the shit out of me.

I suggested to the wife that the cat did it to us on purpose, but THE CAT WOULD NEVER



Our house was a balloon frame house as well, that shit is scary with fires, just no.

How's your fire extinguisher game? Costco has some pretty decent deals on fire extinguisher packages, I bought one that was a 3 pack of house, garage, and car. One is under the kitchen sink, one is hanging next to the door in the garage, and the third is in the boat. I should pick up a small one for the S10 because that thing is pretty old. I check them every season to make sure they're still charged.

https://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advi ... ming.shtml

My new vocab word for the day.

[Desertbreh]

Also the idea that cats would never knock anything over because they always have dat loving intent is completely insane.

[Valkyrie]

I suggested to the wife that the cat did it to us on purpose, but THE CAT WOULD NEVER



Our house was a balloon frame house as well, that shit is scary with fires, just no.

How's your fire extinguisher game? Costco has some pretty decent deals on fire extinguisher packages, I bought one that was a 3 pack of house, garage, and car. One is under the kitchen sink, one is hanging next to the door in the garage, and the third is in the boat. I should pick up a small one for the S10 because that thing is pretty old. I check them every season to make sure they're still charged.

https://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advi ... ming.shtml

My new vocab word for the day.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Also the idea that cats would never knock anything over because they always have dat loving intent is completely insane.

Yea, I know. Pretty sure she did it, but whatever. The point is fire safety is really easy to overlook, so it needs some specific attention from all of us. Everything is fine until it suddenly isn't, and that can happen in a split second. I'm glad that Trudy is using a horrible experience to increase awareness with us. Turn a negative into a potential positive.

We're way better with candles now, and always make it a point to put them out at the end of the evening. I also refuse to light any candlesticks in the house.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I suggested to the wife that the cat did it to us on purpose, but THE CAT WOULD NEVER



Our house was a balloon frame house as well, that shit is scary with fires, just no.

How's your fire extinguisher game? Costco has some pretty decent deals on fire extinguisher packages, I bought one that was a 3 pack of house, garage, and car. One is under the kitchen sink, one is hanging next to the door in the garage, and the third is in the boat. I should pick up a small one for the S10 because that thing is pretty old. I check them every season to make sure they're still charged.

https://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advi ... ming.shtml

My new vocab word for the day.

I'm fascinated by residential architecture, particularly the evolution over time.

My old neighborhood was all historic homes, with a mix of old enough to be balloon frame and many later that weren't. They had a very active historical society (lots of old people with nothing better to do) and I chatted with some people there about the evolution of balloon framing. They claimed that the only reason it stopped in our area was the depletion of old growth lumber and simply super tall/straight trees were no longer available to cut lumber from. Supplies dwindling, and at the same time, insurance companies were growing concerned about fires with balloon frame houses and would even refuse to insure houses with that construction for a period of time. Pretty quickly, they developed the more modern framing techniques used today, but I find it interesting that it was out of necessity due to our destruction of the planet. Even if they wanted to build a house like this today, it would be immensely difficult because there simply aren't any trees left to mill the lumber from. I measured, my house was 35' from sill to the top of the attic, and the studs were that entire length. 35' long straight timber strong enough to build a house out of is pretty much unheard of today.

[Desertbreh]

https://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advi ... ming.shtml

My new vocab word for the day.

I'm fascinated by residential architecture, particularly the evolution over time.

My old neighborhood was all historic homes, with a mix of old enough to be balloon frame and many later that weren't. They had a very active historical society (lots of old people with nothing better to do) and I chatted with some people there about the evolution of balloon framing. They claimed that the only reason it stopped in our area was the depletion of old growth lumber and simply super tall/straight trees were no longer available to cut lumber from. Supplies dwindling, and at the same time, insurance companies were growing concerned about fires with balloon frame houses and would even refuse to insure houses with that construction for a period of time. Pretty quickly, they developed the more modern framing techniques used today, but I find it interesting that it was out of necessity due to our destruction of the planet. Even if they wanted to build a house like this today, it would be immensely difficult because there simply aren't any trees left to mill the lumber from. I measured, my house was 35' from sill to the top of the attic, and the studs were that entire length. 35' long straight timber strong enough to build a house out of is pretty much unheard of today.

Right, couldn't do it if you wanted.

[wap]

Holy shit! Thats scary. That said, its was probaly the fuckin cat that knocked the shit over to begin with to punish you for moving again.


We also have an old house (1930 we think) and it also had no smoke/co detectors. It was noted on the inspection so we had them install some. Turns out they were mostly co only.

I have put in real deal 10 year life smoke detectors. And in the rental units too...because no way I'm relying on them to change batteries. That was an expensive costco trip but with an old bubble frame house a necessity.

As an ex ametur/hobby racer fire is the one thing that legit scared the shit out of me.

I suggested to the wife that the cat did it to us on purpose, but THE CAT WOULD NEVER



Our house was a balloon frame house as well, that shit is scary with fires, just no.

How's your fire extinguisher game? Costco has some pretty decent deals on fire extinguisher packages, I bought one that was a 3 pack of house, garage, and car. One is under the kitchen sink, one is hanging next to the door in the garage, and the third is in the boat. I should pick up a small one for the S10 because that thing is pretty old. I check them every season to make sure they're still charged.

Another balloon frame owner checking in.

When we had our kitchen/garage construction done a while back, the contractor installed hard wired detectors all over - one in each bedroom, one in the upstairs hall, one downstairs, one in the basement, and one in the party room over the garage. Didn't know it at the time, but it's code here that any time you do any remodeling the smoke detectors need to be upgraded to hard wired.

[wap]

https://www.oldhouseweb.com/how-to-advi ... ming.shtml

My new vocab word for the day.

I'm fascinated by residential architecture, particularly the evolution over time.

My old neighborhood was all historic homes, with a mix of old enough to be balloon frame and many later that weren't. They had a very active historical society (lots of old people with nothing better to do) and I chatted with some people there about the evolution of balloon framing. They claimed that the only reason it stopped in our area was the depletion of old growth lumber and simply super tall/straight trees were no longer available to cut lumber from. Supplies dwindling, and at the same time, insurance companies were growing concerned about fires with balloon frame houses and would even refuse to insure houses with that construction for a period of time. Pretty quickly, they developed the more modern framing techniques used today, but I find it interesting that it was out of necessity due to our destruction of the planet. Even if they wanted to build a house like this today, it would be immensely difficult because there simply aren't any trees left to mill the lumber from. I measured, my house was 35' from sill to the top of the attic, and the studs were that entire length. 35' long straight timber strong enough to build a house out of is pretty much unheard of today.

Same here, around 35-ish feet from top of the foundation to the attic FLOOR/2nd floor ceiling.

One thing about balloon construction that we were told is that it's a very strong way to build a house and stands up well to extremely heavy winds, which is important here in the Midwest, home of most of the tornadoes on the planet. Not that a tornado couldn't destroy our house, but it'll supposedly stand up to anything just short of a full-on tornado hit.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I suggested to the wife that the cat did it to us on purpose, but THE CAT WOULD NEVER



Our house was a balloon frame house as well, that shit is scary with fires, just no.

How's your fire extinguisher game? Costco has some pretty decent deals on fire extinguisher packages, I bought one that was a 3 pack of house, garage, and car. One is under the kitchen sink, one is hanging next to the door in the garage, and the third is in the boat. I should pick up a small one for the S10 because that thing is pretty old. I check them every season to make sure they're still charged.

Another balloon frame owner checking in.

When we had our kitchen/garage construction done a while back, the contractor installed hard wired detectors all over - one in each bedroom, one in the upstairs hall, one downstairs, one in the basement, and one in the party room over the garage. Didn't know it at the time, but it's code here that any time you do any remodeling the smoke detectors need to be upgraded to hard wired.

Hardwiring is a code requirement in most areas from what I've heard. When my dad remodeled his 1940's bungalow, he had to add hardwired detectors.

Our current house was built in 79 with hardwired detectors. Replacing all of them was hilariously easy, and I love the piece of mind that they're hardwired.

BTW, they're expensive, but I love the Nest smoke/co detectors. They communicate with each other and will announce where a problem is identified, easy to silence in the app, but the best...they light up as night lights automatically as you approach so you can get around the house at night in the dark without turning on lights. This is huge.

[wap]

Another balloon frame owner checking in.

When we had our kitchen/garage construction done a while back, the contractor installed hard wired detectors all over - one in each bedroom, one in the upstairs hall, one downstairs, one in the basement, and one in the party room over the garage. Didn't know it at the time, but it's code here that any time you do any remodeling the smoke detectors need to be upgraded to hard wired.

Hardwiring is a code requirement in most areas from what I've heard. When my dad remodeled his 1940's bungalow, he had to add hardwired detectors.

Our current house was built in 79 with hardwired detectors. Replacing all of them was hilariously easy, and I love the piece of mind that they're hardwired.

BTW, they're expensive, but I love the Nest smoke/co detectors. They communicate with each other and will announce where a problem is identified, easy to silence in the app, but the best...they light up as night lights automatically as you approach so you can get around the house at night in the dark without turning on lights. This is huge.

Oh that's

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I'm fascinated by residential architecture, particularly the evolution over time.

My old neighborhood was all historic homes, with a mix of old enough to be balloon frame and many later that weren't. They had a very active historical society (lots of old people with nothing better to do) and I chatted with some people there about the evolution of balloon framing. They claimed that the only reason it stopped in our area was the depletion of old growth lumber and simply super tall/straight trees were no longer available to cut lumber from. Supplies dwindling, and at the same time, insurance companies were growing concerned about fires with balloon frame houses and would even refuse to insure houses with that construction for a period of time. Pretty quickly, they developed the more modern framing techniques used today, but I find it interesting that it was out of necessity due to our destruction of the planet. Even if they wanted to build a house like this today, it would be immensely difficult because there simply aren't any trees left to mill the lumber from. I measured, my house was 35' from sill to the top of the attic, and the studs were that entire length. 35' long straight timber strong enough to build a house out of is pretty much unheard of today.

Same here, around 35-ish feet from top of the foundation to the attic FLOOR/2nd floor ceiling.

One thing about balloon construction that we were told is that it's a very strong way to build a house and stands up well to extremely heavy winds, which is important here in the Midwest, home of most of the tornadoes on the planet. Not that a tornado couldn't destroy our house, but it'll supposedly stand up to anything just short of a full-on tornado hit.

The studs in my house actually extended above the attic floor a few feet. The roof was really shallow pitched like typical prairie style.

I've heard both that balloon style is stronger and weaker. I think it's all a wash these days TBH, but it's interesting how perceptions are so mixed.

[razr390]

So, on October 30 we wrote to LL because the air conditioner wasn't, well, conditioning. This time it was cooler out so we realized that while it stopped blowing cold, it also wouldn't blow hot. LL calls home warranty company, they send a tech out, states unit needs to be replaced because the outdoor unit and indoor unit are mismatched, and it has a coil leak. COOL. Then 2 weeks later we get this major nasty weather including cold front (talking like high 30's low 40's LOWS and mid 50's HIGHS in San Antonio, and CLOUDY/grey all day. At night we would need heat and the LL said "oh the system has emergency/auxiliary heat, look for that option."

House had a Nest thermostat and I googled how to access that function. "Auxiliary heat lockout, the thermostat will determine when to turn it on based on aLgOrIthM" fine. So we turned the heat on. Eventually, the system turns on the auxiliary heat function, and it worked! However, it would require the system to run for some time doing "nothing" trying to convince the heat pump to work. Once it tries long enough with no change in thermostat temp, it kicks on the heat.

A few nights of that, and then comes the night of 11/22. We put kiddo to sleep. One cat was upstairs in our bed (his nightly ritual) and he waits for us to come to bed. Other cat was with us downstairs and we decided to watch Elf. Normally after I put kiddo to sleep, my wife either works on her craft stuff or she goes downstairs to chill. I usually "wait for kiddo to fall asleep" in our bed, and sometimes that ends up with me falling asleep too.

Anyways, we are sitting on couch watching movie, eating some food, and then we hear what I can describe as a popcorn noise. I thought it was the cat fucking up the carpet upstairs, and then our cat with us BOLTS UP from laying down, LASER focuses on the stairs, and SPRINTS up. I think they're gonna go fight and wake the kiddo, so I run after her.

I get to the top of the stairs and I hear the popping sound and I don't see any of the cats. I look across the loft at the back wall of it and see sparks/flashing behind the door (through the gaps of the door) and I am like "OH, FUCKIN.. NOPE" yell downstairs "BABE CALL 911, THERE'S A FIRE" and then I get the kiddo (she was scared by being woken up, but not due to smoke/fire) and ran downstairs. Wife in her adrenaline brings me a pot of water and I said THAT WON'T HELP. She calls 911, tells them our address, we open the garage door in case we need to get the car out, and she waits outside with kiddo.

I run back in to get our fire suppression/extinguisher (its one of those spray ones, mostly for kitchen fires, but my instincts/adrenaline just takes me to where they're at) and I try to go upstairs to find the cats, realize I should probably not touch the door knob/open the door barehanded so I go back downstairs to get oven mitt, and then I go back upstairs and there's smoke now filling the entire second floor/loft. Look under bed for cats, can't find them. Go downstairs and wife is just distraught worried about the cats... I go up once more and realize that I cannot see my hand if I held it a few inches in front of me. I prayed that their self-preservation instincts keep them low.

Fire department responds in under 5 minutes, which we are so thankful for. They go and do their thing. The final determination was that the power supply box leading to the air handler unit in the HVAC closet might've shorted, but that's just at a quick glance. They won't fully inspect the unit or do forensics at the lab. Investigator said if it was running aux/electrical or running for longer (aka heat pump failure to turn on auxiliary heat) it could've contributed to overloading/working the power supply box; if the fuse was original they just erode/chip/etc. over time so it probably was literally flinging lightning bolts inside the supply box, melted and caught fire.

The fire itself was mostly contained to the HVAC closet and the 4 walls that connect to other parts of the house (specifically one wall of our master closet, two to an adjacent bedroom which is my wife's office, and then the loft wall. Whatever wasn't damaged by the fire was completely damaged by the smoke, or the water from the firefighting. Every air vent on 2nd floor was also smashed to ensure heat/flame wasn't spreading. House is completely fucked. FD estimated $60-80k+ in damages. Inspector/adjuster said probably more.

We are in a hotel (well, wife and kiddo went to Florida but will come back soon) until 12/15, our renter's insurance paid us out right away (thank god) and we are now just going day by day to salvage what we can. We are obviously breaking the lease (well, mutually) and getting our deposit/move in costs minus the first month back. We also found a new place like 6 houses away in the same neighborhood to rent and are in the application process of it. Cats are fine, we found them once the fire was out, cleverly hiding in full self preservation mode. One of them smelled like BBQ for a few days.

I have a junk hauler contact who is taking whatever is unsalvageable in his trailer and takes it to the dump for like $60. Returned the couch to Costco for our money back, and just saving whatever we can and packing it in those heavy duty Costco containers. Clothes will be washed at some point, but not right now.

What a mess. This was an accident, but we are still obviously at some point upset with LL because this issue took so long that once they would've replaced the unit it might not have happened. We just want to move into the new place and settle in before we even dedicate more braincells to trying to figure out what we could do legally beyond it.

Seems it got lost in the walls of texts about fire safety and asshole cats but here’s the story