The fire

We left July 3 to head over to my parents’ place in Tennessee — about a five hour drive with charging — intending to spend the week over there. On the morning of the 5th, our across-the-street neighbor messaged this:

We came to learn there had already been a flurry of activity leading up to this.

20 minutes earlier: our next door neighbor Trish happens to spot flames back in the direction of our houses while walking her dog. That alone was kind of a fluke, as there aren’t great angles from the street to where the fire was. She books it back from the walk, grabs the garden hose, and tries to put the fire out with our hose but isn’t able to. This is first hint that there is more going on here than a simple mulch fire. Juggling the hose in one hand and phone in the other, she reaches 911 and they dispatch the fire department (after being a bit rude to her).

The fire department arrives and also tries to put out the fire, unsuccessfully. Suspecting a gas leak, they call the gas company (Dominion). While waiting for Dominion, the firefighters keep the side of the house nice and cool. You can kind of make out the flames around our ‘burning bush’ in the photo.

The gas company truck comes fairly quickly, as one would hope, and identifies the problem as being between the meter and the street. Since there’s no valve on that segment to turn off the gas supply, they do a quick marking of the various utilities with spray paint and then dig down and clamp off the gas supply.

Bear in mind, this is all happening with us a 5 hour drive away. We pack two adults and two kids and get on the road in record time.

The fuel now cut off, the fire dies. Now to check things out and establish root cause. I’m able to remotely unlock the front door and let the fire people check the inside. (It’s a little surreal seeing all this happen while we’re not home.)

There are elevated CO levels in the house, so they open doors and set up a fan. They also go through the attic with an infrared temperature reader. Everything’s clear.

For root cause, here’s what the fire department put in their report. There was evidence of fireworks(*) shrapnel in the mulch. They believe a firework started a mulch fire. In the same area, under the ground, there’s a connector that joins the PVC gas supply line from the curb with the metal gas line that connects up out of the ground to the meter. It appears the mulch fire melted the rubber or plastic in this connector, causing a gas leak. That gas leak was then ignited by the mulch fire.

We’re still in western North Carolina at this point, getting the updates from the fire chief (who was awesome, btw). While still driving back, we came to learn: the gas supply line had to be repaired now from where they originally ‘crimped’ it; the gas meter was damaged enough that it needed to be replaced; and there was some concern about fire damage to the conduit for our electric service that the power company came out and investigated.

There was still activity at the house when we made it home around 1pm. A gas company worker was there to verify the ‘smell’ was being properly added to the line after the new meter install (they do this at the meter?). Another gas company worker came a bit later to relight the water heater pilot and verify things inside. The fire chief came back out mid-afternoon with an ATF agent, who thought it was an interesting-enough situation to make a case study.

All told I feel like we were lucky. One month prior and we would’ve been on a cruise that would’ve been difficult to return home from. Trish spotted the fire early in the day; perhaps it would’ve been harder to spot once the sun was full up. The fire could’ve been hidden even, somewhere where it wouldn’t be seen until it’d ripped through the guest room.

As for damages, again, we’re lucky. A wire for our exterior lighting is melted and needs to be replaced. One garden hose melted through. It’s unclear whether the ‘burning bush’ will make it. We’re super grateful to the neighbors who responded. It could’ve been much, much worse.

* - the neighbor at the top of the cul de sac sets off a large fireworks display in a fairly confined area every year.