Non-motoring > Tragedy. Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Ted Replies: 25
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 Fri 2 Aug 24 23:35 
 Tragedy. - Ted

Woken up at 0315 this morning by what I thought was a fox screaming. A few minutes later I was aware of blue lights through the curtains but as they often use our road I thought no more.

This morning I woke up to the news that a house in the road opposite, visible from my bedroom and about 75 yards away had been gutted by fire. A man had died in the incident.

The end of the road was taped off this morning when I went out in the car and there were still lots of emergency vehicles there. This afternoon I was able to drive past and see that all the windows, front and rear had been burnt out and the front door and frame had gone as well.

This was a nice 4 bedroom brick semi where my wife lived with her parents until 1969 when we married and her parents lived for another 10 years afterwards. We lived there for a few months while were working on our house. It certainly brings it home to you !

I didn't know the people who lived there but my heart goes out to any relatives of the guy. Opposite the house is a rather nice bungalow owned by Mike, a retired fireman. He mentioned to a mutual neighbour that the dead guy had been showing off a £2k electric scooter/bike that he had bought recently. At that price, I'm sure it would be kept safely in the house....or unsafely ? His former colleagues intimated that the scooter was the likely cause.

Sad day all round !

Ted
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 07:39 
 Tragedy. - Falkirk Bairn
We do not have anything charging in the house overnight / if we go out.
Even modest battery capacity has caused fires.

A son was in charge of several off-shore assets (oil production rigs) about 15 years

Phone in accommodation modules being charged - "modest fire" which set off sprinkler system but this caused electrical issues on board.

The whole rig was closed down for few days - repairs, checks and difficulties re-starting the production rig caused the costs of the "small fire" to cause damage & loss of production to run into £millions.

An oil rig is not just pumping oil & gas - on-board is a mini "oil/gas refinery"

Did they think of claiming damages from the phone/phone charger manufacturer? NO
Lawyers for a "leading phone manufacturer" would fight it for years and cost more than the £millions in lost production.
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 08:23 
 Tragedy. - Zero
>
>> Did they think of claiming damages from the phone/phone charger manufacturer? NO
>> Lawyers for a "leading phone manufacturer" would fight it for years and cost more than
>> the £millions in lost production.

After a fire, could they prove it was the phone/charger manufacturers fault? No.
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 08:24 
 Tragedy. - Zero
Let me know what sleeping pills you take, no idea how you can sleep through a multi pump house fire 75 yards away.
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 08:33 
 Tragedy. - smokie
I tend to sleep through most things but then again I'm a bit mutton :-)

Totally missed the Great Storm of whenever it was despite trees being torn out of the ground all around us

SWMBO is quite jealous of my ability to drop off to sleep at will, and stay asleep. It's taken years of perfection :-)
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 11:09 
 Tragedy. - zippy
>>mutton

Yesterday, our neighbour's car alarm was going off. I didn't hear a thing.
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 16:29 
 Tragedy. - Ted

Both hearing aids on the bedside table, blackout curtains and the dog probably snoring masked everything ! The windows were open and I heard the scream but I don't think they had the sirens on at that time of night. Without the curtains I would have certainly seen the flames.

The house looks a sad, burnt out mess this morning.

Ted :-(
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 12:03 
 Tragedy. - Fullchat
A personal association with the property. Best wishes Ted.
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 15:07 
 Tragedy. - Timeonmyhands
These e-bikes and hover boards have become the modern equivalent of the chip pan for house fires.
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 15:26 
 Tragedy. - zippy
>> These e-bikes and hover boards have become the modern equivalent >> of the chip pan for house fires.

Is this all of them, or just the ones brought from unknown Chinese brands?

Mind you, one would hope that the batteries that come with a £2,000 be decent as that's a lot of money!



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 Sat 3 Aug 24 15:41 
 Tragedy. - smokie
What known China brands are OK then?

Is there anywhere else that builds them other than China?

All these people who say they won't buy anything Chinese - I think most peoples houses have a little more from China than they realise...
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 18:49 
 Tragedy. - zippy
>> What known China brands are OK then?
>>
>> Is there anywhere else that builds them other than China?
>>
>> All these people who say they won't buy anything Chinese - I think most peoples
>> houses have a little more from China than they realise...
>>

I think more to the point, if you buy a bike with a Bosch motor and battery pack or even a Halford's own brand then the batteries and charger will be made to meet certain standards (one would hope).
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 Sat 3 Aug 24 22:36 
 Tragedy. - Manatee
Got a Bosch. Charged it last week, in garage, while I was in the house. Aware that there is a linked smoke alarm in there.

I don't trust it enough to leave it completely unattended although I think it very unlikely to be a problem. The battery doesn't get detectably hot when charging, but the charger does.
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 Sun 4 Aug 24 16:04 
 Tragedy. - Zero
Its just sheer stupidity to charge a powerful battery pack in the home, regardless of the make and source of manufacture.
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 Sun 4 Aug 24 23:09 
 Tragedy. - Ted

Itwas a father and two sons living at the house. The father, Ian, died. I met him at a street party they had, we were not allowed as our road was busier, so we all got invites and mucked in. He seemed a nice, affable guy.

Police and forensics were still there this morning when I drove past The house is completely gutted

Fire brigade knocked on our door and neighbour's this afternoon checking we have smoke alarms. I said we did but we took the batteries out at night in case it went off and woke us up....I don't think he had much of a sense of humour !

Ted
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 Sun 4 Aug 24 23:17 
 Tragedy. - zippy
Seeing videos of batteries going up, I'd be surprised if smoke detectors would give you enough warning - you would need to get out sharpish.
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 Sun 4 Aug 24 23:29 
 Tragedy. - Ted

The evening before the fire, I just happened to be looking atFacebook.

A short came up of a scooter parked against the kerb somewhere abroad. It was belching out a huge column of smoke.

Seconds later, it virtually exploded, send a massive gout of flame some distance into the air. luckily, no-one was near it at the time !

Ted
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 Sun 4 Aug 24 23:31 
 Tragedy. - Bromptonaut
Never been aware of one triggered by an actual fire but ours, house or caravan, are pretty quick in the draw when we open the oven.

It's not thick smoke they sense so much as combustion products.

Something set ours in the house off once in the middle of the night years ago. Son slept through it like he does thunderstorms in a tent but the other 3 of us were on the landing pdq.

We're fairly relaxed about washer, tumble dryer or dishwasher on economy 7 in the kitchen/utility at back of the house during the night but I'd not have a scooter or similar charging in the hall between us and front door.
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 Mon 5 Aug 24 09:04 
 Tragedy. - CGNorwich
There are two types of smoke alarms, ionisation a photoelectric. The firmer will detect flames earlier but the latter will detect a smouldering fire earlier. Ideally get one of each.
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 Mon 5 Aug 24 14:43 
 Tragedy. - legacylad
How do you tell th difference? My house is 26yo and has two, both hard wired in from new.
Makes me think I should buy one of each …battery operated presumably.
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 Mon 5 Aug 24 15:10 
 Tragedy. - Bromptonaut
>> How do you tell th difference? My house is 26yo and has two, both hard
>> wired in from new.
>> Makes me think I should buy one of each …battery operated presumably.

There will be something inside the alarm casing which will indicate the type/function. The ionising ones have a tiny quantity of a radioactive isotope and carry 'warnings' to that effect.

The ionisation ones have a service life of n years, a quick web search suggests n=10 but not sure if that's authoritative.

Ours are hard wired but with battery back up and were replaced by yours truly maybe 4 years ago. By that time they were nearer 20 than 10 years old having been fitted by the builders.

The CO alarm in the caravan has and end of life chirrup. It was going off when we went out for the weekend in early spring. We thought the batteries were low but as soon as I put fresh ones in it started off again. Replaced with a new one.
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 Wed 7 Aug 24 13:46 
 Tragedy. - Manatee
We seem to have a mixture of types here on the hard wired system.

Downstairs the garage and kitchen/living room say they are heat alarms, the hallway is 'optical smoke', sitting room is CO (there is a multifuel stove in there). The two on the upstairs landing are optical smoke.

Are they just chained together? I asked the electricians to put one in the loft, and they haven't. Can I just tack one on? I could just add a couple of battery ones I suppose.
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 Mon 5 Aug 24 15:13 
 Tragedy. - zippy
Didn’t the ionising type have a radiation source warning?

I’ve just had a look on screwfix and they mention if they are optical. Some are multi sensor.

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 Wed 7 Aug 24 13:12 
 Tragedy. - Zero
This brings a whole new risk factor!!!!!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cg798rkylxxo
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 Wed 7 Aug 24 13:33 
 Tragedy. - zippy
That's barking!

I guess the device had the owner's scent on it.
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 Wed 7 Aug 24 14:13 
 Tragedy. - Slightlyfatdirector
Within the last two weeks my wife told me that the charger she used for her iPad wasn't working and when I looked at it, the cable had melted and fused itself the the separate plug it was attached to.

Lucky it did not start a fire but I was horrfied it was even close to getting to such temperatures for it to melt and discolour. We don't buy cheap chargers, normally relying on OE stuff that come with the items, but so many don't come with plugs or even cables now.

We now only charge when we are in the house during the day and the replacement I got was from a brand I recognised. There are no Apple - produced plugs that I could see that would have given me or my wife more reassurance.

Prior to that the only fire risk we have experienced was many years ago when we have a round glass paperweight in the lounge window - south-ish-facing. Came home after a short shopping trip to the faint smell of burning and found that the sunlight had gone through this, been magnified and there was a burnt hole in the back of a birthday card that was also on the window sill in front of the glass ornament.

If that had flamed instead of smouldered, we would have lost the house and two dogs inside.... Sobering. We have never had anything glass object-wise on windowsills since.
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