As you know from my previous posts, we have been having trouble with our oil furnace for most of this month. We've had heat off and after two service repair calls, we decided to switch over to gas. We were put on a waiting list to have the lines put in two weeks ago, hoping that our furnace would work (off and on) enough to give us some days of heat before we could get switched over. Well, last Sunday the furnace actually worked the entire day!! We were so happy to have a heated house after several days of it not working.
Sunday evening my two eldest boys and I went to see their cousins in a Christmas play. My husband stayed home with the two little guys. When I returned home, I was greeted with 4 fire trucks and lots of rubber necking neighbors standing around...I would have done the same thing. I had a gut feeling it was probably that darn furnace. ...sure enough I was right! Ugh!!! When I was gone, dh smelled smoke and when he opened the basement door, he was greeted with a wall of it. He went down stairs to find oil and flames shooting from the furnace. He ran upstairs and told the little guys to wait outside and he ran back down frantically looking for a fire extinguisher. We actually have one but it was in the upstairs apartment (only feet away). When he realized he wouldn't be able to put the fire out (with the pouring fuel) he called 911. Since we live only a few blocks from the fire station they were here in just a few minutes, put the fire out and then used big fans to rid our house of smoke and fumes. That is just about when I showed up.
We are very blessed to have an unused, furnished apartment attached to our house...with base board heating to boot! For some reason we never got around to renting it out. So, we have kind of moved over there for the time being. When we start getting cabin fever we will go stay with nearby family for a few days.
The Clean Up!! There was several gallons of fuel that ran out of the line. The fire marshall told us that kitty litter works great for soaking up the oil. My hubby got an idea that another product would work great to soak up the oil as well....Look closely at the pink "pillows" in the furnace...Yup, it's Kotex!!
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Dec. 25, 2006 - Christmas Blessings!
In Him, Beckie