What a scary day

[DLandFansAZ]

Well to make a long story short, we had a weird smell in our pantry room on Monday. This smell wasn't a burnt smell, more of a chemical smell, but with a hint of burnt. We tried and tried to find the source but couldn't locate it, then the next day my wife told me that she didn't have any hot water. Yep, the breaker had blown and the smell was gone. Simply put, went into the room where the water heater was (next to the room where the smell was) and found smoke marks next to the connection point. We called an electrician to look at it and this is what he found.

J-Box1


J-Box2





Wall


Holy crap, our house nearly burned down. What a scary experience, I don't know how I would have reacted to loosing everthing. The electrician said if we would have turned the breaker back on there was a good chance that we would have had a full fire.

Back in '95, I had my office burn up, but that was my office. Yes, a lot lost, but it was work not personal stuff (well little things.) So has anyone else had any similar things happen? I really hope not, I can't imagine losing all of your life to a fire.

I'm so glad that we caught it when we did, otherwise our trip to DL next week would have been a bust.

[SCUBAbe]

Re: What a scary day

yikes, that is scary. One of my biggest fears is fires. I'm glad everything is OK.

and no that has not happened to me. I did set the toaster oven on fire once and I managed to start two fires in an oven, but both were easily put out and no real damage was done and I saw them.

[jane2073]

Re: What a scary day

That is scary!!! I also worry about losing everything in a fire. I am glad it wasn't more serious.

[QuietViolet]

Re: What a scary day

Well, nothing to that degree, but we had some electrical work done on the house recently, and the electrician who was working on our breaker box said that there was a MAJOR fire hazzard because some wires were crossed and that the house could have caught fire at any time because they were sparking... luckily nothing ever did happen and he fixed the issue.

[Hakuna Makarla]

Re: What a scary day

I am so glad your ok, and your house did not burn !!! all to scary and real to see those boxes melted
There was a fire next to my moms, the house was fully ablaze, it was thought mom and dads house would go up to, we had to evacuate the animals and what we could salvage. but they firmen put it out!

[sunnygirl]

Re: What a scary day

Very scary, glad everything turned out OK and no one was hurt.

[tassie]

Re: What a scary day

oh my gosh!!! you sre very lucky!!!!

[Grumpy4]

Re: What a scary day

Yikes! I'm glad that you're ok as is the house. That is pretty scary.

[pratt55]

Re: What a scary day

Thank goodness you guys are safe and the house is not ashes. Now that they discovered that one do the electricians check any other wiring in the house just to make sure everything else is safe?

[DLandFansAZ]

Re: What a scary day

Thank goodness you guys are safe and the house is not ashes. Now that they discovered that one do the electricians check any other wiring in the house just to make sure everything else is safe?

According to the electrician, this had to do with aluminum wiring, which was common back in the 70's when our house was built. The rest of the house is copper but since this was a 220 (220, 221 whatever it takes) circuit they ran it aluminum for what ever reason, maybe cheaper.

From talking with neighbors, there has been quite a few fires in the area due to this. Quite a scary feeling. I know of 3 houses that have burned down within a 1/2 mile since we moved in 10 years ago. The last one was the house right behind and one house east and it started in the same area. The good news is that the electrician said he did something to the fix that will prevent this in the future so hopefully this won't happen again.