Again, I had a team from the gas company here yesteday. They had all kinds of equipment. They did not find any gas leak! They said there was no gas leak.
I think that’s the issue: I disagree with your judgement about which actions will make things worse.
That said, I also recognize that you’re there, and I’m not. You have experience with the people and places involved, and I don’t. My main concern is that you’re living in a place with a rodent infestation, which is detrimental to your health, and with at least one sudden flame (if not an eye / brain issue, which seems unlikely given the discussions above). I’m mostly concerned for your safety.
If the Gas Co. & Fire Dept. are not concerned about that (and they would have said), perhaps it’s not as urgent as it seems. I don’t know: I just hope it gets sorted.
For a while, my main rodent problem was that they kept getting into my trash can and feasting on garbage. I finally realized that they had chewed a hole near the base. I gave in and ordered a trash can with a metal lid and a metal shell on Amazon. It should arrive before I leave for Florida on Friday.
I did put a trap along the wall in the kitchen, where I had seen the rodents scurrying. They seemed to prefer the garbage to the peanut butter bait on the trap. This morning, I saw the trap had sprung and killed what appears to be a mouse. I did not notice this in time to safely pick the whole thing up, walk it downstairs, outside and to the dumpster on the side of the building, and thoroughly wash up before I had to log in for work. I will be transporting the dead mouse after I log off for the night.
ETA
Assuming for the sake of argument that calling maintenance to look at my kitchen does not result in eviction, what good outcome is likely?
There is no gas leak.
There is no bad wiring or other electrical hazard.
What could maintenance find that the gas company and fire department missed?
Please unplug everything that can be unplugged before you leave for Florida. Especially that printer!
I dunno. I have to leave the heat on. The heat is three electric radiators- one in the bedroom, one in the hallway and one in the living room.
Got a webcam or two that you can set up, allowing you to keep an electronic eye on things remotely?
Well, the heat would fall under “things that can’t be unplugged.” Along with your fridge. Everything else, unplug it.
Fair enough.
Sadly no.
Do you have renter’s insurance? If so remove anything irreplaceable to another location and go to Florida.
You’re welcome, seriously, nothing you wouldn’t do, or haven’t done for other posters who weren’t in the know. Just wish I could do more to help, speaking of which:
IF (big) you’re comfortable sharing your mailing address, PM it to me. I have one of these:
NIB (new in box) that I got a while back and never set up. If you have an overhead outlet (normal screw base) where you DON’T need the light (which is why I didn’t use it) I’ll mail it to you. Probably super slow to save a few bucks on shipping if you’re heading out of town anyway, but I’m happy to send it your way.
Thank you so much! Unfortunately all the light fxitures are built in. They are recessed in the celing which is too high for me to reach. I could borrow a lamp from a friend. Would that work?
Do I need any other devices, besides I assume the router, to use this?
Okay then, I -do- have somewhere in the house a more conventional webcam (also NIB) which sits on a desk/shelf/etc with a conventional power cord that I got 2 years ago (given by my MIL) to use as a cat-cam. But all the places I’d have put it are the places the cat would have knocked it down, so I never set it up either.
I’ll search around the house to find it - the one I mentioned was literally sitting on my desk. Once I find them I’ll link it and you can compare and contrast.
(reads @DocCathode’s update while writing -this- post)
Probably? May depend on the lamp. They’re designed to work over wi-fi, so if you have 2.4 or 5 bands for wireless connections built in to your router or modem, then all you need is the power. I’ll check on the “conventional” one when I get home this evening.
But almost all such devices need a smartphone app for set up, and either do alerts, do the manual check rather than direct storage, need an SD card for longer term storage, or try to sell you a cloud-based video storage. So once you have whichever, do read the documentation!
Thank you! While I was living at my first apartment, my hand me down iPhone went bad. I could not make any calls- not even 911. My Mom panicked. She signed me up with a new provider, paid for a contract and a new phone and mailed it to me.
So, I have relatively recent iPhone now. It should be compatible and capable of doing the job.
ETA
And in this buidling, my packages do not get stolen!
Should work then.
I did a quick review on the link above (since I can check prior orders easily) and there’s conflicting info on if it works on both 2.4 and 5, or just 2.4, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be fine. And some of the documentation indicates it has an adaptor to go from the screwbase to a standard plug as well.
Again, when I get home I’ll find ( hopefully) the other one as well and you can pick.
Can’t you get a timer, and set them to come on before you get back?
Are there any windows in the room where this happened? I ask because a long time ago, I was in an upstairs room (at my old house) and I saw a dot of bright red light that looked exactly like the dot from a laser pointer, except I was the only one home and there was no obvious line of sight to anywhere outdoors. It puzzled and worried me for a long time and I thought I would never get to the bottom of it.
It eventually happened again and it turned out that it was the brake light of a car in the street below, being reflected off something in the bathroom and passing through the wavy glass in a panel above the bathroom door, in just such a way as to focus a bright dot in the landing outside the bathroom.
Your situation might not involve such an exotic coincidence - maybe just something as simple as a firework exploding outdoors and some of the light being projected through a gap in the curtains, into the place where you saw the flash.
No, for several reasons.
All the timers I have seen require plugging the power chord of the appliance into the timer. The three radiators don’t have power chords going to an outlet. They seem to be wired in directly via a chord hidden in the wall.
I am reasonably sure, I would have to double check, that my lease requires me to maintain a minimum temperature in winter and to stay at or below a maximum in summer.
Even if it didn’t, I am worried that even in this building the pipes would freeze and burst.
Another solution -
I’m an Amazon Vine member (yes, you may boo me considering the !@#$%^&*( Bezos is up to these days), and there’s this:
On my available products right now.
And it’s designed to sit on a desktop, so no adaptors. It’s slightly less refined, but also less faffing about. Of course, it’s so cheap as to be laughable, but if DC wants it, I could have it shipped straight away from my phone.
There are 3 windows in the kitchen and 3 more in the attached living room. The blinds are always down. The first incident could have been many things, excep for the pop. The second one I saw clearly. It was bright, pale orange flame- also accompanied by a pop.
ParallelLines I ain’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. The cheapest webcam you think will work would be perfect. Thanks again! I will send you a Private Message with my address.
OP, forgive me if this has already been mentioned. Does (did) your gas range use igniters for the burners? Mine make a snapping noise and a small spark when the burner knob is turned on & gas begins to flow. I know you said your gas is off, but maybe one of the igniters is firing randomly (they don’t need gas to operate). I realize this doesn’t explain the orange flame, and I’m not even sure this could really happen but Occam’s razor, etc.
I hope you figure it out!