~THE ELECTRIC TOASTER~

~Do you want me to tell you where your toaster is located? It's sitting on the kitchen counter, just under the cupboards that are located about 8" above the toaster, it is plugged into the wall outlet. and possibly it is covered with a cloth or plastic cover. Want to see something that will put chills up your spine? Stop reading this right now and go look at the bottom side of that cupboard above your toaster.~

~The wood or paint was all brown and scorched from making toast wasn't it? How did I know? Because I have investigated so many house fires where the "point of origin" was right there above the toaster. Fire just doesn't happen, it is caused.~

~Over the years while you have been making toast, that wood above it has been toasting too, causing the wood to give off flamible vapors (smoke detector going off?) each time it was heated, just waiting for the right conditions to ignite into flames. Those conditions are, fuel, oxygen (air) and heat (temperature). the three things it takes to have a fire.~

~"But I was not making toast, I was not even home when the fire started", you say. Do you know what happens to a light bulb burns out?. It goes out right?. Do you know what happens to a toaster when it malfuntions? It turns on without pushing down the lever and it gets hotter and hotter untill the elements burn in two. That is if it is plugged into the electric wall outlet like yours is, or was.~

~THE BOOB TUBE~

~Like watching television? I bet you wouldn't watch what I have seen over and over from and caused by a faulty TV set. I'll tell you about one case.~

~About 6 P.M. the fire phone rang and the caller said, "there is a house on fire nextdoor, we saved the old man but the old lady is still in there and we can't get back inside." he gave the address and the firefighter's responded.~

~The flames and thick black smoke were pouring out the broken bedroom window and open front door. A old man was laying on the grass in the front yard, he was suffering from smoke inhalation, what appeared to be a heart condition and first degree burns on the back of his neck. He was given oxygen and transported to the hospital in the aid car.~

~A bystander said that he was walking by when he heard a window break and seen the old man standing inside the window, the heat and smoke was rushing past him. He told the old man to jump and he would catch him, which he did. Then a old woman came out the front door screaming and then ran right back inside after she pulled away from a man who was trying to keep her outside, she said her husband was still inside. But he wasn't, he was outside his bedroom window.~

~The fire was soon extinguished, but not before one of the firefighters came outside and told me they had found the old lady, she was dead so they left her inside for my investigation.~

~She was located on the kitchen floor next to the sink, the water was running in the sink overflowing a large pan, she was partialy covered with burnt bebris and the plasterboard ceiling. She had died of smoke inhalation and burns. It had appeared that she was trying to put the fire out with the water from the sink and rescue her husband in the back bedroom, as there was no door back there only the front.~

~The fire had started in the living room, and the cause was the television set, it's plastic case and components producing causing thick toxic smoke, the "V" burn and soot pattern on the wall behind it pointed down to it as the "point of origin", the heat was so great at this point it melted the window.~

~I visited the elderly man in the hospital and he told me, "the wife yelled at me, wake up there is a fire". "I opened the window to let the smoke out and the rushing heat burned my neck, a man told me to jump and I did, he caught me about about six feet down. I can't walk, I just got out of the hospital from a heart attack and my wheelchair burnt up in there."~

~No one can say what caused the television set to start smoking and break into flames, but several years ago a artical appeared in the newspapers across the United States, that the National Commission on Product Safty had identified 122 models of color television sets that had been catching fire, "at a ABOVE average rate". I had seen many television set fires before that and a lot more since. They have started fire both while turned on or off. I have smoke detectors above mine. how about you?~

~CLOTHES DRYERS~

~I do not know how many times I have investigated a fire in a clothes dryer, but they have all been the same. Now you would think, "what would cause wet clothes to start on fire, there is no flame to start it". Well it does happen every day and will continue to happen if you make that common mistake that cause fire. Combining fuel, heat (source of ignition). and oxygen (air) togather.~

~In all cases resulting in fires starting in clothes dryers, the mixture of materials being dried were nylon and foam rubber backed or filled. The first such fire I investigated involved nylon under clothes and several foam padded bras. The others were nylon and foam lined drapes, shirts, foam filled nylon jackets and sleeping bags.~

~FLORESCENT LIGHT FIXTURES~

~Can you hear a loud humming noise in your house, shop or business? Well get up and go over near your florescent light fixtures and see if it isn't comming from them. Again, "how did I know"? Because that is the first and only indication that you may be going to have a fire soon. Shut it off NOW, replace it or have the "ballast" replaced. By the way, it will cost you just about the same price to replace the ballast as the light fixture.~

~The florescent light tube will give you a indication it is burning out by flickering and turning black at the ends. The ballast starts humming louder and louder. It is a long black tin box inside the light fixture with wires comming out of it. It has electric components incased in hard black tar, while humming and overheating, the hard tar liquidizes and expands, untill the tin box burst at it's seams , the hot tar ignites as it reaches the air and drips flaming tar onto the combustibles below and your building burns down.~

~I can say I have never seen this type of fire cause in a house, but have seen it time and again in commercial building fires. Possibly because those florescent lights are in long rows and are on most of the time, day and night. Examples: Schools, Hardware, Furniture, Drug and Paint stores. I'll tell you of one such fire that almost claimed me as it's victim.~

~It was almost 4 A.M. when the alarm came in from a fire alarmbox on the corner of the business area, it was not the time of night for a false alarm to be turned in. I responded from my home after waking up from the radio monitor call, I could see the sky was lit up.~

~As I arrived and was taking pictures, the fire trucks were laying water supply lines down the street to and from fire hydrants. A second alarm had been called in for more help. The Hardware store was "in the red", fire comming out of every plate glass window opening on the front of the building, the nearby telephone pole was on fire from the radiated heat. It was quite some time before I could get inside to conduct my investigation as to the "point of origin" and cause of the blaze.~

~Even though the building was a total loss due to the fire and water damage. I found the point where the fire started on the ceiling near the center of the store. Here the damage was the greatest, the ceiling was gone and the rafters were compleatly burnt away. Where a fire starts it burns the longest and does the most damage. therfore the burnt away rafters at this point.~

~Digging thru the ashes and debris below that location, I found the long florescent light fixture, attached to it was the ballast, burst at it's seams. I talked to the owner/operator of this busy store(before Ernst, Eagle, Fred Myer, ect) who stated he had heard a loud humming at the center of the store and was going to have an electrician check the light as it had been "driving me nuts".~

~In order to make a complete fire investigation, you do not stop after finding the point of origin and cause of fire, there may be others so you check everything. Smoke was still comming up the basement stairway and it had to be checked out,that's when "old iron lungs" made a near fatal mistake, I went down there without putting on a air-pack and was carried out by the firefighters who found me laying down there.~

~All I can remember is getting dizzy, seeing flashing lights and stars, breathing faster trying to get air that was not down there, and the burning pain inside my lungs. I awoke in a hospital intensive care bed in a oxygen tent, with IV's in both arms and the beeping of my heart on the monitor nearby. The doctor and my wife were standing at the side of my bed and he said I had a very close call, there had been paint, chemicals, poisons, fertalizers and cleaning compounds on fire in the basement and the toxic fumes were trapped down there. It is said we learn from our mistakes, but there are graveyards full of people who made mistakes, that angel on my sholder must have been mighty sooty that night.~

~FIREPLACES~

~The purpose of the fireplace is to help heat your home or give you that "homey" feeling sitting back watching it's flames. It is not intended to be used as a "trash burner", but that is just what the public is doing with it, espcially on Christmas Day when all your wrappings and boxes are stuffed into it and lit to get rid of them. That is when the roaring flames leap out the front of the fireplace and ignite any combustibles nearby, including the clothes on your children.~

~The roaring flames and burning paper also can go up the chimney igniting the soot and creosote, now you have a red hot chimney fire that may spread to the inside of the wall, attic and roof, where it is not seen untill it is well out of control.~

~HAIRSPRAYS~

~Ladies have you ever had your hairspry can go empty in the bathroom and put it in the wastepaper basket with the tissues you use to remove your make-up or blow your nose, toothpaste boxes, toilet tissue and roll tubes? The lady in the case below did.~

The wastepaper basket in the bathroom was full of papers, so the teenage daughter took it out into the living room, emptied it into the fireplace and lit it. She thought she would be helping her mother, but she was helping burn out her house, she was setting fire free to claim his victims.~

~There was a very loud explosion, the screen blew off the front of the fireplace and it's flaming contents were scattered all across the livingroom and onto the furniture. The sharp ruptured can was spinning across the room looking for a victim also.~

~Even though there was no fireplace involved in this case, it did involve hairspray in a aerosol can and is very important that it be brought to your attention.~

~It was a aid call for a burn victim. I heard the call on my radio and responded as I was nearby and to see what had caused the burns.~

~The lady was sitting in a chair in the living room, she was in shock and burnt all about the head, face and neck. There was not a hair on her head, it was all burnt off. The little girl standing next to her mother said, "mommies head burnt up".~

~I asked the little girl to tell me what had happened. She said, "mommie was spraying her hair in the bathroom and she lit a cigarette and she started on blue fire, she ran down the hall and fell down and she was crying too". We learn something new everyday.~

~CHARCOAL~

~Then there was the case where a family of four almost lost their lives due to a hibachi and the carbon monoxide nightmare.~

~He shook his youngest daughter to rouse her from her dream, but she would not respond. he turned to his daughter in the other bed, and saw that she was staring glassy eyed at the ceiling. Then he collapsed.~

~"There's something wrong in this house", the mother yelled, racing for the telephone. She re-lived her nightmare of carbon monoxide poisoning to me from her hospital bed, where her husband and two daughter's were also admitted near death.~

~The family had cooked stakes in the fireplace in a hibachi over charcoal late that afternoon. The fireplace damper was closed and they went to bed.~

~The source of the deadly carbon monoxide was found still glowing in the fireplace, there were no odors or smoke in the house, there was no battry in the smoke detector! Carbon Monoxide has no odor and you can not see it. It is the silent killer produced in all fires especially incomplete combustion such as a smoldering overstuffed chair, couch, mattress, charcoal, anything not producing flames, or the flame had died out for lack of oxygen (air) I said this before? GOOD now you understand why you need Smoke Detectors in your home.~

~ELECTRIC LAWNMOWER~

~The garage was fully involved in fire when we arrived, and it was locked. I soon located the "point of origin" and the cause of the fire. The wall was nearly burnt thru at the location of a electric lawnmower, the typical "V" burn pattern pointed down the wall to the mower.~

~The lawnmower was plugged into a battery charger, that had shorted out and started the wiring and plastic casing on fire, spreading it to the garage wall then thruout the garage. I have seen the same thing happen to chargeble hand grass clippers and children's battery operated cars.~