Had a house fire last night!

[ThisIsJason]

About 9 last night my daughter said she was going to cook a bag of popcorn. Sounded good, so I asked her to cook me one as well. One bag was cooked, started the second bag, and about 30 seconds into it, she screams 'DAD' at the top of her lungs. I get up head towards the kitchen smell smoke and round the corner and see flames shooting up the wall. Run into my garage grab the fire extinguisher and try to put it out. No luck, it has spread way to fast. Now the upper cabinets are on fire.

No one else was home, we get outside and I call 911, so everyone is fine. Fire department was at our place within 5 minutes of calling, but seemed like hours. They get it out within 20 minutes. Kitchen is a total loss, living room/dining room/entryway are going to have to have new drywall/paint and flooring due to smoke and water damage. The Captain from the fire department said you can tell it is electrical from the way it burned, started at the outlet the microwave was plugged into.

My wife was actually out picking up a grocery order from a local store during all this. When she got home of course she was super upset, and mad I didn't call her. Which I didn't even think to do. Meeting with the insurance agent in about an hour to see what our first steps are. Oh fun!

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I'm so glad you and your loved ones are okay! Wow!

 

[FigmentSpark]

Wow! So glad to hear you're all right. That must have been so scary.

Do you know why the electrical fire started? Was the microwave old or the wiring? Dust accumulated back there? I don't mean that as a means to assign blame, but I think it would be good to know how it could have happened.

 

[mousefan73]

wow! glad you guys are ok.... and the house was not a total loss and I hope no non-replacable, sentimental stuff was lost.. are you guys able to still stay in the home?


Good thing your daughter was nearby to see what was happening.. knowing us, we would have popped the bad in the microwave and would have gone pee and not noticed until later.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Wow, thank God you and your daughter are okay, Jason, how scary!

 

[mrsstats79]

Glad you are ok and did the smart thing and got out. Hopefully your insurance company will handle it quickly

 

[PollyannaMom]

Oh my gosh, how scary!!

Glad everyone was OK!

 

[macraven]

Good news you and your daughter got out safely and unharmed and here to tell us about the fire.

The house can be fixed.

 

[AuntieMe3]

OMG....so scary. Glad you all are ok.

We had a fire in our HVAC unit earlier this year and we didn't even know about it until the repair guy came to see why it wasn't working. He said we were so lucky our house didn't burn down, never figured out what caused it and now I'm super paranoid about fires.

 

[lynxstch]

That is scary..so glad your daughter alerted you right away and that the fire department was able to get there quickly and put it out. Glad that noone was hurt, but sorry that you have so much damage
@AuntieMe3 We just had a brand new HVAC system put in this week, so hoping nothing like that happens to us. Lucky that your repair guy came out to see what was going on!

 

[Southernmiss]

Oh no!

Glad all are ok!

Houses can be fixed. Hopefully that process will go as smoothly as possible for you all.


But what did you do with the grocery order? I'm with your wife. I'd be a bit upset, too.

 

[katie01]

That’s so scary! I’m glad you’re all ok, but sorry about the damage, I hope you can get it all fixed soon

 

[J'aime Paris]

Oh no! I'm glad your family is safe!
That is such a scary ordeal...

 

[ThisIsJason]

Thanks for all the well wishes! Well, the insurance agent came and went. We are meeting Monday to talk, but everything in the kitchen, dining room, living room and entryway is a total loss, seeing these are one giant room for the most part. The fire damage was contained to the kitchen area but the smoke damage and water is worse than I thought it was. They are going to have to take it down to the studs and redo everything. All the furniture is a loss as well, other than the dining room table and chairs, we took those out today to the garage. HAVE INSRUANCE PEOPLE! I don't even want to know what the cost of this is going to end up being, seeing we only have to pay the deducible (and the upgrades we want).

Wow! So glad to hear you're all right. That must have been so scary.

Do you know why the electrical fire started? Was the microwave old or the wiring? Dust accumulated back there? I don't mean that as a means to assign blame, but I think it would be good to know how it could have happened.

I would like to know why it happened too! Microwave wasn't that old. I actually found the owners' manual in the basement along with the receipt and it was bought in June 2014, no clue when it was made seeing it is just burnt plastic now. No dust (or very little), the microwave sat on a movable table and when we would mop the floor it would get pulled away from the wall. I am going to guess something happened with the wiring, but I am having all that inspected just to be safe.

wow! glad you guys are ok.... and the house was not a total loss and I hope no non-replacable, sentimental stuff was lost.. are you guys able to still stay in the home?


Good thing your daughter was nearby to see what was happening.. knowing us, we would have popped the bad in the microwave and would have gone pee and not noticed until later.

Nothing non-replicable, sentimental was lost, a few pictures but those are saved on cloud servers, so can always get reprints. Unable to stay in the home. The electric is turned off, and even if it was on, the smell from the fire is terrible.

Oh no!

Glad all are ok!

Houses can be fixed. Hopefully that process will go as smoothly as possible for you all.


But what did you do with the grocery order? I'm with your wife. I'd be a bit upset, too.

We ended up going and staying at my dads about 20 miles away and took the groceries . Staying with him until everything is fixed.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

Blessings you two are ok I’m so very sorry about your house ! Thank God you were there for your daughter !!

 

[DVCjj]

Having just made 2 batches of microwave popcorn late last night....wow, just wow.

I'm SO glad you and your family are OK. Insanely scary. Sorry you now have to deal with the insurance and rebuilding aftermath.
Hope all goes smoothly.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Continued prayer, Jason!

Stay safe everyone!

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

So glad you’re all ok! What a scary event.

 

[Hikergirl]

How terrible! Thank goodness you are all OK.

 

[RamblingMad]

Good news is everyone is safe. The bad news is that you will probably never want to eat popcorn again. Also, might be a good opportunity to teach your kid to use the fire extinguisher. I keep one of the white ones in my kitchen.

It’s also good the fire department arrived so quickly.