So I was in the backyard working on the lawn and my SO was helping and he went inside to get something and then the smoke alarms all started going off. He came running out saying “fire!” and I went in and sure enough, there was our dryer in the laundry room spitting flames. We were able to reach behind and turn off the gas, I was calling 911 (of course screwed up and called 411…I should have asked them the telephone number for 911) and went and got several pails of water.
We were dumping water on the dryer, that stubbornly didn’t want to stop burning and we had were pouring more and finally the fire department came and finished the job. Dryer is a total disaster…melted from the inside as well. Floor also melted…but it was crappy linoleum so we are not exactly distraught about that. The house stinks to high heaven of smoke and burnt plastic - even today you can still smell it.
Couple things we learned: Good that we put batteries in our smoke alarms a few weeks ago. We will now invest in those fire extinguishers that we have been meaning to buy for 6 years. Glad we never turn on the dryer when we are not at home - never have, and sure as hell ain’t gonna start now. The one strange thing is how the fire started. Not only do we clean the lint out of the dryer every time, we actually use a vacuum cleaner to clean it about once a month!
At any rate, we won’t be doing any loads of wash and dry for awhile, we will be getting a new floor in the laundry room, and a new dryer…I think after I pay my deductible, the insurance company will give me a check for $3.26 but let’s hope for the best.
I asked the fireman yesterday. Two of them flipped the machine over and looked under it. They couldn’t be exactly sure what started it…his response was “who knows. Accidents happen.”
I would be really surprised if it was the lint, because seriously, we pull it out after every drying cycle, and whenever we vacuum downstairs, we slide it under the dryer and even inside down the lint trap! I don’t know how much more we could have possibly done!
AGH! Don’t EVER pour water on something that’s connected to the electricity! Even if it’s burning!
water + electricity = elemental oxygen (burn, baby, burn) + elemental hydrogen (oh, yes, yes, yes, let’s burn some more!)
Instead of putting out the fire, you may have been helping it, as well as risking electrocution.
Now go and buy extinguishers, preferably multi-purpose dust: they cover the three kinds of fires that are most likely to happen around the house, including electric fires, and can be used on stuff that’s connected to the electricity.
Glad you’re ok
Trust me, electrical plug was the first thing we pulled (plug is high on the wall for just that reason), and then reached behind to turn off the gas…so we were only dumping water on burning plastic.
And before the next dryer is installed, two extinguishers will be purchased and hung with pride - one downstairs in laundry room, and the other in the kitchen.
This is really strange. I’m not usually paranoid about burning a candle, but last night for some reason I didn’t want to leave a candle burning if I wasn’t in the room. I had cooked hash browns with lots of onions for my dinner (Mr. SCL is at the cabin) and the whole house smelled like onions. I lit a candle powered scented wax melting thingy my sister in law gave me, which does a really good job of running bad odors far far away. I’ve used the thing dozens of times and never felt the least qualm about leaving the room with it burning. Until last night.
Glad to hear the damage was minimal and no one was hurt.
Well, have to admit, Farmer’s Insurance doesn’t waste any time. Called them this morning, and this afternoon they sent a claims adjuster to the house.
I wasn’t there, (my SO was) but the adjuster was quick to point out things we didn’t even notice - smoke stains on downstairs bedroom ceiling means re-painting, as well as the airconditioner vents all need to be repainted, and the carpeted steps where the fireman walked up with muddy boots needs to be cleaned, and the hardwood floors next to the laundry room need to be checked for water damage, and she continued to make out quite a list of things we didn’t even notice. I am sure we would have noticed at some point, but she certainly knew what to look for without our input.
We will get the final damage list by Thursday including their check minus the deductible.
It’s powder, not dust. But a CO[sub]2[/sub] extinguisher should be fine if you can’t get a powder extinguisher. And get yourself a fire blanket while you’re at it.
That’s the easy way to do it. The real way to do it, and I suggest you drop the hint to your SO, is to make the laundry room as airtight as possible and set up a halon system.
A word of caution: Find out how much damage you’ve got, then find out from the insurance company how much your insurance will increase with the claim. A coworker’s insurance premiums more than doubled after a $500 claim after a wind storm.
We clean out the lint filter before every load that we put in the dryer.
We also clean out the dryer exhaust hose every couple of years (as part of Spring Cleaning). Even when you clean the lint filter as often as we do, it’s amazing how “linty” the exhaust hose gets, too. Even worse, our laundry room is in the basement, so the exhaust hose does a 90-degree curve to get from the floor up, then again to get to the exhaust vent at the top of the laundry room ceiling. Those two bends also help reduce air flow, which in turn promotes lint accumulation in the hose. (The last time we cleaned out the hose, we found a mummified wren, who had apparently climbed into the vent to get warm, only to find that it couldn’t get out again.)
When we clean or replace the hose (depending on the lint accumulation), we also clean out the area in the dryer between the filter and the hose, which can also accumulate quite a bit of lint.
As someone else pointed out, lint is extremely flammable. We keep a certain amount of it on hand in the winter to help start fires in the fireplace, or for when we go camping in the summer, but most of it goes into the trash. (Daughter used to be in Girl Scouts, where she actually learned how to use lint as tinder. Son is in Webelos II Cub Scouts, and Mr. Kiminy brings a baggie of lint on camping trips with them.)
DMark, I’m glad that things ended so well, compared to how it could have been.
A word about dry powder fire extinguishers.
PKP (Purple Potassium Powder) fire extinguishers are excellent for putting out class A, B and C fires. The powder works two ways: it will actually interfere with the chemical reaction of oxidation allowing the fire to continue; and it coats the surface of the burning materials with an inert non-combustible powder that prevents the fuel and oxidizer from combining. A little bit goes a long way, too, in terms of being able to put out a fire.
These effects do not come without drawbacks, however.
The powder is just that, a very, very fine powder. It is also highly corrosive. If it gets into any electrical equipment that equipment is going to be a complete write-off. I realize that your dryer is completely gone. But if your set-up is like most people’s your washer is in the same room as your dryer. As such, the motor and control system for the washer would likely end up degrading to uselessness if you used PKP on a fire in the dryer. If you have central heat/air, any of that dust that gets into the central ventilation system can be spread through the house.
None of which is meant to imply that the nuisance of the dust is a greater hazard than a fire. Far from it.
But I reccomend a CO[sub]2[/sub] extinguisher, instead for household use. It also works well on class A, B and C fires, and doesn’t have the potential for additional damage from the extinguishing agent, because the CO[sub]2[/sub] just disperses into the atmosphere.
Whatever extinguisher you choose to go with, please remember to always, when fighting a fire, keep track of your lines of retreat. If the fire looks to be getting out of control, get out. Please. We’d hate to lose your commentary.
I think the dryer was lonely or suicidal and was looking to take out every one else with him ( or her. It is very hard to determine the sex of these things. If you’ve had it for awhile, it could just be menopausal or suffering from equipment failure that you haven’t noticed yet because you are too busy, you heartless person.)
You haven’t bought a new appliance into the house recently, have you? Appliances are very moody tempermental creatures. That can trigger appliance envy in your old faithfuls. For this reason we only do ‘rescues’. As in, it was given to us from the inlaws. The toaster/bread machine/coffee pot was going to go to the shelter for unloved appliances and we decided it needed a new home.
jsgoddess beat me to it, but she’s right. If you are really not expecting to get much back from Farmers after you pay your deductible (even if your “$3.26” was hyperbole, if the check is less than a few hundred bucks), I probably wouldn’t have called them. Insurance companies are ruthless and as jsgoddess says, there’s a chance your premiums will go up. Also, if Farmers ever drops you, you might have a difficult time getting new insurance.
Sorry, but the 120 volts of alternating current are not going to turn your water to elemental hydrogen and oxygen. You are in great danger of being electrocuted if you put water on an electrical fire. However, it will not cause the fire to increase in intensity. If you don’t have a powder extinguisher available, use sand or baking soda on electrical fires.
If you actually want to see a fire that will split the water into elemental hydrogen and oxygen, throw some water on a fire burning in metal shavings (preferably magnesium). Get ready for a big boom. I have personally experienced this when we had a fire safety class while studying Chemical Engineering. It was also fun to see one of our labs flooded to the ceiling with CO[sub]2[/sub] (in less than 20 seconds!) and watch the fire we had started be extinguished in an instant.
