My Brothers house nearly Burnt down yesterday!
By jennybianca
@jennybianca (12912)
Australia
December 7, 2009 3:41am CST
I couldnt believe how lucky my brother was when I heard this story from my Mother today.
Yesterday, a Sunday here, my brother wasn't at work. He went to turn the airconditioner on and it wouldnt work. A warning light came on. Not knowing whether to call an electrician or an air condioning maintenance worker, he climbed up into the ceiling himself.
He found that the security system and the a-c had been wired up in the same system, which is apparently normal.
He also found some melted plastic or wax. This had melted down to a large beam in the ceiling of his house. The melted "stuff" was burning and had turned red. In other words, it had almost hit ignition point. Which means the house would have burnt down. In Australia most home fires are caused in the ceiling and spread rapidly and nearly always cause the whole house to burn down (as fire spreads very rapidly in ceilings).
Had my brother been at work, as he usually is, there is no doubt the fire would have destroyed his house.
Even had he investigated the situation two hours later, that may well have been too late.
Red hot means it's about to ignite.
My brothers house is worth $450,000.
This is a warning to all to be very careful with electrical systems especially those in the roof/ ceiling.
1 person likes this
8 responses
@thea09 (18305)
• Greece
7 Dec 09
Hi Jenny, glad to hear he caught it before it all went up.
I don't have that much wiring to worry about but do worry when it is raining constantly that the water penetrating the uninsulated stone walls might get into the sockets. The telephone men said that was why the phone had a funny noise but they blamed it on water getting in from the shower. My tiler friend checked all my sockets for water as I don't know any electircians and certainly wouldn't call the bunch of cowboys who installed the wiring in the first place. All pretty standard over here.
You do all have insurance I take it?
1 person likes this
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
7 Dec 09
My brother would have had insurance. I do too, but I recently calculstred that I was way underinsured. This is something I need to rectify, as I got a ltter from the fire authrority today saying I am in a high fire risk area (bush fiore) and I have to develop an action plan.
Water penetrating sockets is bad news. I lost all my lights twice last week & today we discovered it was water in an outside light globe socket.
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
7 Dec 09
Im fairly sure I heard about the Greek fires on TV.
Im going to start a disccusion today about bush fires, as I just received notification last night that I am in a high risk area and need to have a bushfiure plan for evacuation. Thats if I get time. I have to see my lawyer today re my ex hubby trying to get some of my asetts. Thats why I couldnt reply to many discussions yesterday as Im trying to sort things out.,
@cerebellum (3863)
• United States
7 Dec 09
Your brother was very lucky he caught the problem before it caught fire. If it's normal to have the a/c and security system on the same system what was the cause of the melting? I hope he doesn't have to get everything rewired that would be very expensive. It would have been more expensive and sometimes impossible if the whole house had to be replaced,
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
7 Dec 09
Im not sure exactly what caused the melting. My mother told me about this, and she got me confused.
My brother is an ex electrician so was able to do the replacement himself.
@cerebellum (3863)
• United States
8 Dec 09
It would probably have cost a lot if he had to have someone else do the repairs. He was lucky again that he could do them himself.
1 person likes this
@pastorkayte (2255)
• United States
3 Mar 10
I have to agree here, in my very first house I ever purchased, we were in the house for about a couple of months when a neighbor came and rung our bell and said there was smoke coming out of a window in the attic, we didnt even smell it because the whole house was still asleep, not 10 minutes after we were awoken and got up to see what was going on the ceiling fell in on my bed, the alarms did not go off, thank God for the neighbor heading out to work or I would have been hurt or killed in the falling ceiling. I agree that if you have a house you should have the electrician check your wiring even if there doesnt seem to be nothing wrong.
1 person likes this
@shibham (16977)
• India
8 Dec 09
hi. thanks god that all are save now. i have also some such experiences but never to that level. i have shocked my self by electric meterials verious times but never hurted too much. just fell down. to avoid this thpe of accidents we always use cutout system where a fuse exists. in case of any fault all the electricity supplies will be blocked to entire house. fortunately i know something about electricity maintenance. anyway take care and say him too.
1 person likes this
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
9 Dec 09
I have a circuit breaker which is probably what you are talking about.
@lindiebiz (1006)
• Canada
8 Dec 09
I am glad for your brother, he is very lucky. Recently, 5 homes got burnt in my city where I live and it was really terrible. I pray that this does not happen to me
1 person likes this
@mzz663 (2772)
• United States
7 Dec 09
Wow!! He was lucky!! Now I have to use my favorite saying....there's a reason for everything!!
My brother's house caught on fire a couple years ago and had to be torn down after the fire and rebuilt. Granted, they did lose a lot of personal possessions and it took 6 months to rebuild, but now him and his wife have a gorgeous house and I think I'm actually jealous!! (normally I'm not jealous of anyone or anything, but lemme tell ya.....their new house is just awesome!!)
1 person likes this
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
7 Dec 09
They must havce had good insurance, which is a big plus. I still wouldnt want to loose some personal possessions, those with memories attached.
