I had a house fire on Tuesday...

craig_t

craig_t

craig_t

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So just as I left my house on Tuesday evening through my porch which then leads to the garage as I sat in the car I heard a fire alarm, I wasn't sure if it was mine but went back inside to check anyway and sure enough as I got upstairs my boiler had set alight the room. I closed the door of the room and called the fire brigade and got out of the house.

Thankfully the water feed to the boiler was plastic so it melted, burst open and put the fire out before it spread. However the house has a lot of smoke and water damage. That room itself the insurance have written everything off due to smoke damage, however said I am welcome to salvage anything I want as it only gets binned anyway.

So I have a lot of stuff in there (This is my office). Do I run any risk on re using these electircal items other than a possible smell of smoke?

I have:
A full PC (spec below)
A large amount of hard drives
HP Microserver (Was running at the time before electric went off)
A laptop
A Synology NAS
G25 Steering wheel and pedals
3 Monitors

Can I re use these if I can remove the smell or should I bin them? Can I take some parts? Say CPU, RAM etc if it is a risk that the motherboard is goosed? Advice would be appreciated, I don't want to bin something which is still safe to serve it's purpose. I appreciate that it may break sooner than it would have before this and warranties will be void for smoke damage... But I just want to know what is and isn't safe?

Off that subject of saving parts, I had just finished decorating my home so I think due to how well they see the upkeep and condition of it they are replacing carpets in all of the house, re decorating 3 of the 4 bedrooms due to smoke damage. Downstairs has water/damp damage from all the water so there is a large amount of repairs to be done, meaning they're looking at moving me to rented accommodation while the work is ongoing which will be strange in itself.

I always feared since moving out of my parents my house setting on fire. Thankfully, I have not lost anything of any serious significance since the fire was quite small and the majority is just smoke damage cosmetically I think other than stuff in that room. But now I worry at the slightest of noises, worry that it will happen again etc. Will this stay with me for life? Is it a short term feeling?
 
If its just smoke stuff should clean up and be usable though smell might not go away easily, if heat or water damaged another story.
 
Electronics are unlikely to be damaged by the smoke and or heat, unless they physically melt. Remember most gizmos are basically baked together. Clean stuff off with isopropyl and plenty of kitchen towel, if the smell is too much, bin them.

As to your feelings, really depends on your character really, I don't think any one can answer
 
craig_t said:
I always feared since moving out of my parents my house setting on fire. Thankfully, I have not lost anything of any serious significance since the fire was quite small and the majority is just smoke damage cosmetically I think other than stuff in that room. But now I worry at the slightest of noises, worry that it will happen again etc. Will this stay with me for life? Is it a short term feeling?
Click to expand...

I was the same with rain for a while. Part of the time I lived in African I stayed in a house that was really prone to flooding when we had some of the more biblical downpours. There wasn't much you could do other than hope the rain would ease, whilst watching the inexorable rise of the water. Many an unhappy night was spent trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to prevent the water coming into the house.

When I got back to the UK I found I would always consciously look at the road and garden when there was a downpour, expecting it to start flooding. The feeling went away after a while, and I'm sure it will for you too. Even with the best preparation and maintenance, these things do just happen. Few will ever experience a boiler fire though, and now you've had your bit of bad luck then it'll probably never happen again.

Chin up, be thankful that you're finally getting some value out of home insurance, and move on.
 
I'd just visually check everything & plug them in individually but if you do go throwing away the G25 then throw it my way. :p


Jokes aside I came in expecting a lot worse & am pleased to hear it's just property that has been damaged & nowt else, Sounds like you got real lucky with the pipe bursting & putting it out.
 
Sorry to hear that! Hope you get everything sorted ok. Very glad nobody got hurt too.
 
Don't expect the smell to go - it'll hang around.

A couple of years ago there was a fire at the company office in Stockholm. It was actually on the floor above us. Our floor was open plan but with an enclosed area int he middle that effectively split the floor into two sides.

We ended up having to replace all the computers on one side of the building and ultimately moved out of the building because the smell just wouldn't go.
 
I would now remove all the pc stuff.

blast it all with ispropol, then leave to dry.

then test it all. If it works great.

if not you can get an upgrade via insureance
 
Good to hear your ok. Even if the pc stinks it might just be the case? (ie hardware inside ok??)

Got any pics of the damage?
 
take poc appart clean all the dust and soot out of the heat sinks etc and change any dust filters, dont forget to blow out the psu too.


few cans of compressed air wil ldo it
 
Has the insurance promised to cover the value of all the electronics in the room?
Including anything you remove?
Do you have to itemise things, for replacement, or what way are they dealing with the claim?
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
Has the insurance promised to cover the value of all the electronics in the room?
Including anything you remove?
Do you have to itemise things, for replacement, or what way are they dealing with the claim?
Click to expand...

This would be my question.

If theyre replacing to lot keep whatever has data on.. I.E All your hard drives and synology and strip the ssd/hdd from pc and let them replace the lot.
 
I set my oven on fire once when I left the grill pan in, had to call the fire brigade and looked like an idiot. House fires are quite rare though, just make sure your alarm works and you'll be fine.
 
We had a house fire 5-6 years ago. Most of the house was completely gutted and the insurance company put us in a rented place for 2-3 months. Fortunately there was no structural damage, but the inside of the house was errm, crispy...

A surprising number of things 'survived', including electronics (such as a pc which still worked), but we could never get rid of the smell. Even all these years later we have boxes of old stuff in the garage which still smell, even after being washed, scrubbed, dry cleaned etc etc. Other stuff was okay though; I suppose it depends what the smoke was, our house was clearly filled with some nasty plastic, chemical smelling fumes.

Overall not fun and I don't recommend a house fire... Thankfully no-one was hurt, although the cat had to be rescued because flame= warmth...
 
Get an ozone generator and put anything you want in a closed room with it and leave it a few days. Avoid going into the room, ozone is extremely reactive which is how it gets rid of smells.
Need decent airflow around any thing you want to remove odour from, books are probably the most difficult, due to lack of air flow and huge surface area off al pages in a closed book.

Putting stuff in boxes won't help as you've cut of air flow and trapped smoke particles in.
 
The insurance company supposedly cleaned everything, whether they did or not... most likely they just did a bad job.

The stuff in boxes is mostly books and sheet music etc. Can't bring myself to throw them away, but I can't see how they'll ever be usable - most of them are burnt around the edges and you get covered in soot if you dare to open them.

The electronics were all replaced by the insurance company anyway, so the old stuff lying around is just waiting for a trip to the tip really.
 
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