Might be a blessing in the end

But for now it's depressing stressful, frustrating etc...
Friday night we had a small kitchen fire. Some Cabinets soffits brick walls were busted out. We are safe and able to stay here for now.
Insurance and fire remediation company came today for the game plan. Basically kitchen remodel, ceilings will get gutted as needed, a bunch of cleaning antimicrobial treatments, attic insulation possible duct cleaning etc ..

Thankfully the fire was contained to 1 structure wall and was put out before we lost everything.
About an hour earlier I discovered a livingroom wall which was recently painted now has water damage. The paint is peeling above the baseboard. I emailed insurance and the remediation company the pictures of that damage we all missed.

Looks like cooking will be done via grill and smoker until appliances can be reinstalled.

We could use prayers. The kids are handling it better me.

Weren’t you just talking about your house falling apart, and now there was a “fire” in the kitchen? Lol

Prayers sent your way Adam. Glad your family is safe, your house is repairable and you have insurance to cover it. Now quit moping and start designing your new kitchen!! Most people pay tens of thousands for a kitchen remodel!

All the best for you and your family as you move forward.

Chris

Adam,
When the going gets tough.....
Aw gosh, glad you're ok and the family is only out some structure.
We had a fire when I was a lad and the whole house burned down and that trajectory moved our family to another area, where I learned to trap!

You nailed it. It just might be a blessing in disguise!
Prayers will be offered in that regard.

Blessings,
Mark

Thanks everyone I appreciate it. It's been hard to process let alone talk about.
LOL JP. I joked with my daughter on Sat that I should've just let burn. LOL

KK exactly. I called up my old neighbor this afternoon who owns a cabinet shop. They are coming next week to start all of that design. The base cabinet is water damaged busted and a little burned. So I am sure it's gotta go. Cabinets are probably original too.

Wow that landed up being a great blessing for sure Mark.

Good luck Adam, it will all work out......keep pluggin along.

Adam, just Glad you're Safe.
We had a Kitchen Insurance remodel 4 years ago. Ended up being blessed with Hickory cupboards from a Cabinet maker friend. Insurance paid for lower cabinets and flooring but not our Uppers

thank the lord that your family is fine ,

When you have done all to stand, Stand.
Thank God for life.
Prayers of support.
Ron

Worry to hear about that. A house fire is seriously about the scariest thing in the world that I can think of.

God bless you and your family. I'm glad all are safe. The good Lord will provide something in return. He always does. Take care

Thanks everyone.
330 that's awesome you upgraded your cabinets.

Loose goose, I agree. The scary part was 2 of my kids were just falling asleep.
If the house would've ignited the fd wouldn't be able to fight it due to ammo going off. I'm glad I have a rider on my guns and ammo too.

I had an appliance fire about 8 years ago the drier caught fire , I got it out before it damaged the house , smoke detectors really do save you. I had started a load of laundry then went to make breakfast the smoke detector in the basement alerted me to the issue a few minutes later

things I changed the next day

added a smoke detector to any room with an appliance. as well as any area that could be closed off with a door
added fire extinguishers to the upstairs hall , the living/dining room , the kitchen and the basement just across from the drier.

at least one of those fire extinguishers needs to be the larger type with the hose , the canister needs to remain upright to work , so when you have an appliance fire where you need to get the chemical agent into a tight space the hose is necessary.


the plastic that was on fire inside the drier could not be put out with the hose from the laundry sink it would flare right back up , my fire extinguisher was in my truck , i had to send my son for it while I kept it down with the hose , one puff if the extinguisher put the last of the plastic fire was out.

I went out side and puked my guts out , smoke inhalation

ammo storage , there are several ways to build it and it doesn't need to be expensive

a wood box with 2 layers of 5/8 dry wall screwed on then mudded and painted can make a big difference , do 2 layers inside and out and you really have some fire slowing power , that sitting on a concrete floor you can just about burn a house down around it
keep the ammo in metal ammo cans inside that

the fire resistant file cabinets work well we had several of them go through an very hot fire the video tapes in side were melted but did not catch the biggest issue was those file cabinets were on the second floor and some of them busted open when they fell. the fire below them was so hot we found chain saws that were a puddle of melted aluminum and a bar , chain , spark plug. this was at a place I worked

if you have a concrete floor and want to build something more permanent concrete blocks building up 2 course fill them with mortar make a lid that is sandwiched dry wall 3-4 sheets thick and metal clad on the outside

heat rises wiring inches below the floor in that fire was fine , we had wires that ran into the floor through 6 inch pvc holes through he concrete. the melted air compressor head was a puddle on the floor inches from the hole that was just stuffed with some fiberglass insulation was fine

Will insurance cover a cooking 101 class for the chef?

Glad everyone is safe and hope things start looking up.

Good to know everyone is safe, what caused the fire?

Wow gcp that's so crazy.
That's a great idea on an ammo storage idea. Yea I'm on a slab.

Lol now.
Nittany, not sure. Soldering hose bib on. The hose bib had a relief valve that was faulty and cross threaded & water was spraying everywhere when my youngest turned on the water. Unscrewing it by hand the hose bib snapped off. I was running the flame parallel to the brick, the brick sparked and I didn't see it go into the wall but noticed a glow. I sprayed the extinguisher inside and then a little water. 2.5 hours later smoke was pouring from the soffits. Cabinets just taken out and faulty wiring was discovered. So it was probably the electrical. The remediation company discovered a lot of shady work already.

Not completely true. I've been in a few fires with ammo 'cooking off' The ammo gets to the temperature where the powder self ignites. The bullet stays more or less in place and the brass takes off but under much lower velocity than a bullet locked in a position as in the breach of a firearm with only one way to go , out the barrel.
The brass has hit me in my turnout gear which is padded. Not that dangerous at all , but VERY unnerving. You can clearly hear the ammo going off even with all the noise of fighting a fire and all your protective gear like helmet and head covering , SCBA facepiece etc demising your hearing. Brass flying like that rarely penetrates a sheet of drywall. Ammo boxes do help contain it , metal military or homemade as suggested.

Glad to hear no one was hurt and damage was minimal. Hope this turns out to be a positive and you get your kitchen redone to your liking.

Crager, that's great to know. That makes sense the brass pops backwards at slower speeds. Half my ammo is in boxes not in ammo cans. I've been meaning to buy more ammo cans. I'll be moving most ammo and guns tomorrow to a secure location. The last thing I need is a contractor finding it and helping himself.

Well pandora's box was opened today during cabinet removal. This might turn into a full house remodel. EVERYTHING the previous owner touched is royally messed up. Everything from Electrical, studs, seal plates, plumbing, exposed electrical wires ontop of insulation and touching copper water lines, insulation, windows were installed wrong, much much more. Remediation crew also found termite damage on a stud which the termite inspector missed. Water lines were ran in the roof down the wall then around the entire kitchen to the sink instead of tearing out the slab to fix the lines correctly. I can keep going.

GREENCOUNTYPETE reminds me of a tragedy we had here about 30-40 years ago. There was a structure fire on a 2 story wood frame construction warehouse. Fire was fairly well involved and multiple teams were attacking from different fronts. One team was on the ground floor when the building collapsed on them killing 2 firefighters. Cause of the collapse was several piles of fur that had gotten soaked and became too heavy for the load rating of the wood frame.
Many things were learned from this and our fire dept has not been the same since. There are 2 firehouses now named after these heroes in my city. Every year on their anniversary of their sacrifices we remember them.

Butch Melody and John Halas , you are not forgotten.

Ammo is not a problem for firefighters.

this was the construction and plumbing business I worked for 25 years ago.
I had done the majority of the electrical work for the previous 2 years on the building , I got to work with the fire inspector for 2 days digging up boxes and reconstructing the electrical system.

one of the first questions the fire inspector asked was were there any clocks with metal hands I could think of one , the boss/owner was into flying he had a Gulf Aviation fuels clock in the office up stairs metal sided wood frame pole building with offices up stairs. he was particularity interested when I told him it was neon around the outside. well we did find that clock hands stopped at about 4:20 am it was ruled the cause of the fire. Neon has a way of catastrophically failing when it burns out. the fire was not noticed till almost 6 am when it had hit the paint cans down stairs and they woke the boss who lived about 100 yards away.

sent a lot of firemen to the hospital , PVC when burned is bad stuff cyanide poisoning , when your a plumbing outfit we had a whole wall just for pvc fittings and racks of pipe outside against the building.

most of the filing cabinets actually held together but they fell on racks of shelving below the couple that had a strait fall and hit the concrete busted open

I used to burn the trash at the range , it was surprising how often there was ammo in the trash,

generally the fire in the 55 gallon barrel would be going a while , really burning hot before rounds cooked off

it made me uneasy and I would stand a good distance off but I never once had a bullet hole in the 55 gallon drum , with no chamber and barrel the pressure is released as soon as the bullet pops loose.

even a cheap 15 or 55 gallon steel drum to put ammo in and set a lid on it would give it a decent amount of time and protection

Here's a couple pics of the genius amazing work. Taken last evening

The longer you look the worse it gets.
2nd and 3 rd pic I had put wire nuts and taped off because they were exposed live wires that were inside the wall.

Little update:
The fire revealed a lot of sketchy work done by the previous owner. Exterior wall has got to come down the remaining kitchen walls aren't framed correctly way over notched and bored out including load bearing walls and the list keeps going. I have all construction trades coming tomorrow for a game plan

Questions for those in the trades.... have you ever seen a load bearing wall where the 2x4's are cracked horizontally? 1 part of a wall is carrying the carrying beam with 3 2x4's nailed together but 1 of the 2x4's had several horizontal cracks. The carrying beam is 3 2x12's. I'm thinking this is significant.

Also, how significant is undercut rafter tails? I can't find anything in the code about it. I have several rafter tails exposed because soffits were torn out. Some of the rafter trails are cut upto 8" short from the fascia area. Other tater tails were"trimmed" to be flush with the beam the fascia is nailed into.