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09-26-2018, 06:40 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Alberta
Posts: 24,071
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The fastest house fire I have ever witnessed
At 11:24PM Monday our I heard a massive explosion, our house shook. Our whatsapp lit up like a bomb had dropped. I was out the door and at the scene in less than 2 minutes, checking to see if the house was empty and the house next door was standing, with them out. In less than 3 minutes this house was completely engulfed. I was gone long enough to grab bunker gear and our 2nd of 3 fire trucks, was back on scene in less than 3 minutes. We saved the house next door, there was not 20 feet from the garage that burnt up next to the neighboring house.
I have never experienced a fire that intense and fast, in 37 years of firefighting.
Nobody was hurt.
My wife took some amazing pictures.
__________________
Only dead fish go with the flow. The rest use their brains in life.
Originally Posted by Twisted Canuck
I wasn't thinking far enough ahead for an outcome, I was ranting. By definition, a rant doesn't imply much forethought..... 
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09-26-2018, 06:50 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Alberta
Posts: 1,269
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Older house ??
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09-26-2018, 06:52 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: southeast alberta
Posts: 1,182
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WOW, I just hope everyone is Safe and sound
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09-26-2018, 06:52 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 2,358
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Wow that is crazy. Any idea why so fast? Was this an all wood sided cedar shingled roof house or something? Certainly seems odd given more recent building standards and materials.
Hope everyone got out okay. That is intense.
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09-26-2018, 07:07 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Alberta
Posts: 24,071
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Real old house, several additions over the years.
There was sawdust insulation for sure.
__________________
Only dead fish go with the flow. The rest use their brains in life.
Originally Posted by Twisted Canuck
I wasn't thinking far enough ahead for an outcome, I was ranting. By definition, a rant doesn't imply much forethought.....
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09-26-2018, 07:12 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Strathmore
Posts: 5,622
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Maybe with the boom you heard and how quickly the building was fully consumed, there was an accelerant, intentional or accidental.
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If you're not a Liberal when you're young, you have no heart. If you're not a Conservative when you're old, you have no brain. Winston Churchill
You can, you should, & if you're brave enough to start, you will. Stephen King
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09-26-2018, 07:16 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 4,134
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Sorry to hear about your loss Ken. It’s never funny when someone’s home burns down......unless your high, in which case I see debil horns coming off the garage. I seen that in a fart I lit on fire one time too 
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09-26-2018, 07:21 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Alberta
Posts: 24,071
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Thanks Tinda
The only things I lost though were a day of work and a new neighbor.
The investigation will continue...
__________________
Only dead fish go with the flow. The rest use their brains in life.
Originally Posted by Twisted Canuck
I wasn't thinking far enough ahead for an outcome, I was ranting. By definition, a rant doesn't imply much forethought.....
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09-26-2018, 10:00 PM
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Central Alberta
Posts: 21,399
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Natural gas explosion ?
Grizz
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"Indeed, no human being has yet lived under conditions which, considering the prevailing climates of the past, can be regarded as normal."
John E. Pfeiffer The Emergence of Man
written in 1969
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09-26-2018, 10:09 PM
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Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 3,552
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👍 nice save on the neighbors
No SCBAs?...😳
Last edited by drake; 09-26-2018 at 10:18 PM.
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09-26-2018, 10:23 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Alberta
Posts: 24,071
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams
Natural gas explosion ?
Grizz
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No results back yet from investigators, but something made a hell of a blast.
Quote:
Originally Posted by drake
👍 nice save on the neighbors
No SCBAs?...😳
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thanks
Anyone that was close or downwind was on air. The wind was blowing through the fire from our direction, we never smelled smoke. There was no entry, confirmed no victims.
__________________
Only dead fish go with the flow. The rest use their brains in life.
Originally Posted by Twisted Canuck
I wasn't thinking far enough ahead for an outcome, I was ranting. By definition, a rant doesn't imply much forethought.....
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09-26-2018, 10:25 PM
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Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 3,954
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Older building codes were .... sketchy.
Trouble is that so much in a house can burn and really fast when it gets hot enough. Couches melt onto poly carpet, with foam underlay, setting afire any old oil base paint on the walls, etc. Vapours become explosive as they are petroleum laden fumes, then the attic starts to burn as all the heat goes upward.
Funny thing is that fiberglass insulation shrivels up when hot enough and now all the walls are fair game for fire to spread up ward.
If the house was old enough and wood shave insulation was used, well there is another layer of accelerant.
All that matters is everyone gets out safe. Stuff is just stuff.
Drewski
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09-26-2018, 10:29 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: GP AB
Posts: 16,239
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Those pictures tell the story Ken. It happens fast sometimes. Glad nobody died.
Years ago while living in Missouri, an old house (at least 90 years) caught fire right across the street from where I lived, the sirens and lights woke me. FD got there pretty quick, apparently a neighbor called it in, smelled smoke and saw flames while walking his dog. There were a couple of seniors (sisters) living in there, and apparently they had put some space heaters on some light gauge extension cords to keep just a couple rooms warm instead of firing up the old oil furnace. Old knob and tube wiring....you know where this is going.
That old place burned so hot and fast it was insane. They didn't get out.
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'Once the monkeys learn they can vote themselves a banana, they'll never climb another tree.'. Robert Heinlein
'You can accomplish a lot more with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone.' Al Capone
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09-27-2018, 05:46 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: At the end of the Thirsty Beaver Trail, Pinsky lake, Alberta.
Posts: 24,592
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Natural gas leak....boom....over....good to hear no one was hurt, first responders kept the blaze under control too 
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Be careful when you follow the masses, sometimes the "M" is silent... 
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09-27-2018, 08:05 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: edmonton
Posts: 3,116
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Is it possible a backdraft was created allowing everything to smolder before suddenly being enveloped into flames?
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" Everything in life that I enjoy is either illegal, immoral, fattening or causes cancer!"
"The problem was this little thing called the government and laws."
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09-27-2018, 08:10 AM
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Banned
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Communist state
Posts: 13,245
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Wholly smokes!
If I didn't know you the movie backdraft comes to mind, you know, the one where the fire chief was starting fires......
Just kidding Ken, I’m glad nobody was hurt, those are some amazing pictures. Any idea what started the fire?
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09-27-2018, 08:21 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Cowtown, agian
Posts: 2,815
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Quote:
Originally Posted by roper1
Maybe with the boom you heard and how quickly the building was fully consumed, there was an accelerant, intentional or accidental.
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Dust from a burnable substance is an excellent excellerant and could produce a similar boom.
Or gas. Gas is bad.
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The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
- Sir Winston Churchill
A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
-Thomas Paine
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09-27-2018, 09:47 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 6,692
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Cold have been cooking drugs....that sh@f goes boom
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09-27-2018, 01:29 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Calgary AB
Posts: 2,706
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Quote:
Originally Posted by calgarychef
Cold have been cooking drugs....that sh@f goes boom
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Not just meth any more. Could be "shatter".
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09-27-2018, 10:46 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: 3rd rock from the sun, formerly from 4th rock from the sun
Posts: 5,000
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Those are quite the pictures, that one went up really fast 😳
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 I may not be the brightest crayon in the box at times but I sure am colourful 
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09-27-2018, 11:33 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2018
Posts: 19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken07AOVette
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Wow that's an amazing and frightening picture. 
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09-28-2018, 10:21 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 56
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Many years ago, back on the farm, my Dad decided to burn an old homestead house that was still standing out in the field. Prairie wool for insulation in the walls. Burned flat in about 10 minutes. Straight north of Lloydminster, just south of the North Saskatchewan River.
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