It wasn’t until a month ago that I had any experience with apartment fires.
I l received how devastating a apartment fire could be when it was our own home.
The bad part was that the fire was our fault. I was in the basement and I heard a sputtering coming from the furnace. The igniter that lights the fire that causes the heat, was sputtering small amounts of gas that was creating small puddles around the igniter switch. I thought it would be harmless if I put some water on the igniter so it would catch fire. By the time I brought the water to the furnace, the puddle of gas lit. I was throwing the water at the same time the gas fumes lit and they splashed into small areas. One of those areas was a lot of wood dust and aged papers, which suddenly caught fire. Our house was old, and so were the timbers, and they were the next to catch fire. All because I wanted to keep the fire from spreading, I had destroyed our own home, and almost lost our life and that of our child. I swore that I would never have another gas furnace in our home. When our house was rebuilt, I told the contractor that I wanted electric heat because of the cause of the fire. With electric heating and a/c, I felt much safer. I l received a lot about how oil and water didn’t mix. I was told that if I called the Heating and A/C business, I would have never had a apartment fire, and I wouldn’t now be building a new house with electric Heating and A/C.