- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
We put out a big fire at our next door neighbors house tonight. 
At about 7:30 tonight we were hanging out with a friend, waiting for his wife to come over from work before we headed out for dinner. We were outside about 10 min earlier and smelled smoke, but didn't think too much of it because many farmers out here have been burning their ditches & fields.
We were chatting in the front room and our friends wife threw open our front door, yelling about a fire and to grab an extinguisher. She had just pulled up to our house and saw the flames. I grabbed the small extinguisher that we usually keep in the garage, but was set out on the porch when we deep fried a turkey for Thanksgiving. Our neighbors fence was on fire, as was their plastic garbage cans and a plastic storage shed. The flames were licking the side of the house, heating up the eave and melting the rain gutter. The flames were a few feet above the gutter, probably 12-13' tall.
I hosed the base of the fire with the extinguisher, while Catherine was hooking up the hose and faucet. Once the extinguisher emptied, my wife handed me the hose and we put out the rest of the flames. The fire did reach into the crawl space, the owner climbed up there and ended up crashing thru the ceiling to gain access. He emptied his fire extinguisher, while I hosed down the roof and inside of the vent from the outside.
The sad thing was the firefighters response time, took about 10 min at least. We had everything out by the time they got there. :-\
Our neighbor had been cooking hot dogs for dinner in one of those porch firepits. He emptied out the coals, which he thought were cold, into his garbage can, right next to the wooden fence. Apparently there were some diapers in the garbage can, which smoldered until they lit up.
The really, REALLY scary thing was that on the backside of the fence in his storage container (which was melted), were 2 gasoline cans and a full propane tank. Also, on the outside part of the fence and in the flames was the natural gas meter... The local gas company had to replace the meter, they're out there right now.
And we were just on the local news... :greg: We made our friends wife, who called 911, do the TV interview... she hated us for it!
Our homes are kind of close, probably less than 10' of yard between each house. Their fence was burned about 3' out and could have easily made it's way to our fence and home.
I need to buy a few fire extinguishers... and bigger ones. This could have been very bad, glad it wasn't.
At about 7:30 tonight we were hanging out with a friend, waiting for his wife to come over from work before we headed out for dinner. We were outside about 10 min earlier and smelled smoke, but didn't think too much of it because many farmers out here have been burning their ditches & fields.
We were chatting in the front room and our friends wife threw open our front door, yelling about a fire and to grab an extinguisher. She had just pulled up to our house and saw the flames. I grabbed the small extinguisher that we usually keep in the garage, but was set out on the porch when we deep fried a turkey for Thanksgiving. Our neighbors fence was on fire, as was their plastic garbage cans and a plastic storage shed. The flames were licking the side of the house, heating up the eave and melting the rain gutter. The flames were a few feet above the gutter, probably 12-13' tall.
I hosed the base of the fire with the extinguisher, while Catherine was hooking up the hose and faucet. Once the extinguisher emptied, my wife handed me the hose and we put out the rest of the flames. The fire did reach into the crawl space, the owner climbed up there and ended up crashing thru the ceiling to gain access. He emptied his fire extinguisher, while I hosed down the roof and inside of the vent from the outside.
The sad thing was the firefighters response time, took about 10 min at least. We had everything out by the time they got there. :-\
Our neighbor had been cooking hot dogs for dinner in one of those porch firepits. He emptied out the coals, which he thought were cold, into his garbage can, right next to the wooden fence. Apparently there were some diapers in the garbage can, which smoldered until they lit up.
The really, REALLY scary thing was that on the backside of the fence in his storage container (which was melted), were 2 gasoline cans and a full propane tank. Also, on the outside part of the fence and in the flames was the natural gas meter...
The local gas company had to replace the meter, they're out there right now. And we were just on the local news... :greg: We made our friends wife, who called 911, do the TV interview... she hated us for it!
Our homes are kind of close, probably less than 10' of yard between each house. Their fence was burned about 3' out and could have easily made it's way to our fence and home.
I need to buy a few fire extinguishers... and bigger ones. This could have been very bad, glad it wasn't.
