Last night at 3 am, at the height of the snow-fall, my fire pager went off - "active structure fire with an occupant possibly trapped". The roads were treacherous and the extra minutes it took to get to the house were painful ones.
By the time we got there Charlestown Rescue (ambulance) was on the way and we had mutual aid fire units from Carolina and Dunn's Corners also out on the road making their way, as best they could, to the house.
It turned out that this was a chimney fire that had spread through a crack in the chimney to a wall in the basement.
The very good news was that the wall held a plastic (PEX) water line and when the plastic melted it started spraying water on the fire in the wall. The owner also rushed to get a garden hose hooked up and by the time we got there our firefighters only had to finish tearing the wall open to ensure the fire was out. Then it was a matter of airing the smoke out of the house.
Sure you're busy and you can save some money by not having your chimney cleaned but do you really want to take that gamble with your house, possessions, and loved ones.
My article on this topic from a couple weeks ago, when we had our first chimney fire of the season, is here.
That makes two chimney fires so far this season. Where will the third one be?