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Forum Index : Other Stuff : Bob’s misfortune
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| brucedownunder2 Guru  Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548 |
Hi Bob ,, So sorry to hear your bad news about the fire in the shed... I suppose it hurts me as you are fairly special in your posting of funny jokes , which I'm sure cheers lots of us up .. I'm now a bit concerned now with my Chinese inverter/rectifier. But , having said that any brand could have an accident.. Now , I've been thinking , I'm going to install a smoke detector above my install and maybe even in the battery cabinets .. ?--- Does naybody know of smoke detectors that can be linked and an external alarm fitted to say , my bedroom . Surely some bell wire and a buzzer would just have to be paralleled to any of the linked alarms?? I have 6 fire extinguishers around my house and workshop , two fire hose reels with 2 independant electric water pumps and a 5hp petrol pump with snorkel to 2 big water tanks..so far never used. plus I have 140 mtrs of fire fighting hose figured of eight on top of the water tank ,ready for quick run out.-used once in 7 years--I too was having lunch when the back yard fire crept into the ajoining bush --lucky that time ,, but scared the sh*t out of me , I can tell you..Never again.. Anyhow , Bob , hope you recover most stuff and the misses goes easy on ya -spare bed here..lol. Bruce. Bushboy |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Jeez what happened Bob?  The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Glenn and Bruce I was testing a Inverter for a friend and running a battery charger booster, from what I can put together the Inverter had a melt down and for some reason took the battery charger with it, the fire ran down onto the polystyrene packing of the wife's new oven stored under the bench, from there it st the bench and a storage cupboard and several tins of paint on fire. I saw the smoke and got to the shed as quick as possible and thought all was lost as the fire was running up the wall into a stack of timber. I got a couple of buckets of water from the tank outside the door and managed to slow it a bit so I persisted and eventually got it under control, it also burnt several batteries in the battery bank. I had a fire reel and pump ready to set up but hadn't got around to doing that. Apart from nearly having another heart attack from the exertion I am OK just a few minor burns and slightly cooked lungs, frightened sh*t out of me as another minuet I would have been to late. A few cooked tools and a fried LG project, but it could have been much worse, would have made a good funniest home video with some old fool hopping around in the flames tipping water out of a bucket. Have to have a rest for a couple of days to get over this one. Bruce I like your setup and according to Murphies law you should never have a fire. This is the third Chinese battery charger to catch fire on me, I shouldn't have gone to lunch and left it all hooked up Idiot Me. It could have been much worse so I should be glad for that. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
Bob Glad to hear you're still warm and breathing after all that. I'm so fire conscious (read that downright paranoid), I check and re-check my stove when I leave the place. I've even come back to check it, knowing full well I'd checked it before leaving, but came back anyway. Can't be too careful, especially with fire. I know a way you can be better prepared in the future and it'll only set you back a few bucks. As primitive as this is, it'll douse a class A fire (wood, paper, etc.) in a jiffy: I have a plastic Hudson sprayer I got at Home Depot for about $10 filled half way with water sitting at the ready. I leave it unpumped, but to pressurize it only takes about 8 short whacks with the built-in plunger and it gives me about a gallon of water that will squirt in a spray pattern out about 3 or 4 feet. That should be enough water to cool flames and not do too much in the way of water damage if I should find myself with an early blaze. Of course, if it's already out of control, it may help, but that calls for some REAL water power. Water is no good for a Class C fire (electrical) but it would at least cool things down a bit maybe and give you a slight edge on the time it would take to switch off the power if that were possible. Hope this doesn't set you back much. Looking at the bright side, maybe the fire drove out the brown snakes living in the shed, eh? 
. . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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mac46 Guru Joined: 07/02/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 412 |
Bob, Geeezzee...Luueezzee, I am sorry to here of the fire, glad as punch that you and the misses are alright. Today, I will go arond here and tidy things up, looking especially for potiential fire hazzards. This fire has probably set alot of people all around the world cleaning up and looking for fire hazzards. Don't know what I'd do without my shop, its the most important building on the farm. Kind reguards....Mac46 I'm just a farmer |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Mac46 It is easy to be wise in hind sight and I broke my rule of leaving things being tested turned on due to a distraction visitor, just thought it would be alright and decided to have lunch. It gives you a cold shiver down the spine when you look at what would have happened if it really taken hold, as it was I lost a few power tools several deep cycle batteries the wife's new gas oven a couple of F&P generators and my work in progress LG generator I may be able to get another set of windings for that ad the bearing assembly is OK. I have to face the clean up tomorrow so will find more things burned I suppose. I kept myself busy mowing the runway today but will have to face it tomorrow and the music when the wife see's her lovely new gas oven in its cremated state. She has been away for the week in Brisbane doing her mouse race thing. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi mac Good suggestion with the pressure pumper, OK if you are there but in this case I used over 100 gallons of water to get it under control, lucky the water tank was just outside the door and full after the recent rains. There was snakes and possums vacating the area at a great rate of knots from all the dense black smoke from the polystyrene burning, there was one little brown snake at the back door of the house looking to come inside as I spose he thought I wouldn't be silly enough to burn the nest as well, Rodger kicked up a real act and chased him up into the roof, there are a few more there so he / she will have some company. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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Tinker Guru Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904 |
Bob, your last comment has me puzzled "mouse race thing", what's that?? Have fun with the clean up, might be preferable to facing the missus re the cooked oven.  Klaus |
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| Georgen Guru Joined: 13/09/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 462 |
Bob, Glad you managed to extinguish this unfortunate fire. You say 3-rd Chinese charger did this to you. Is there anything wrong with them, or just three times unlucky? George George |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Klaus My wife does some subdivision work in real estate, not in the full on Rat race of business, but just as futile, so I call it the mouse race, as in for small players. Sorry to confuse with my stupid sayings. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Fire is always a danger in a workshop. Before I do any welding or grinding I always make sure the garden hose is plugged in and ready to go, and I like to stay in the workshop for 10 minutes after welding, just in case there is something smouldering. I've thought about installing a sprinkler system. Those automatic sprinklers work pretty good, and I would rather a wet workshop than no workshop. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi George The transformer is the best part of the battery chargers, but the rest is rubbish the switches melt or go OC the amp meter generally melts and the diodes have a sequential fail problem, often the wireing is wrong and nothing happens, unfortunately most battery chargers in the reasonable price range are imported from china. In this case it was I believe a fault in the inverter that started off the chain of events, and the charger melted down as a result, the overload switch didn't work I presume. I do not let these high rate charger work unsupervised normally but a distraction caught me out this time. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Glenn That's the way to go and for the past 50 years I did just that but one slip up and it brings it all home to roost, I must look into the automatic sprinkler system as it would be the way to go but like all systems it normally would break down the day before it is needed, "Murphies law". All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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philb Regular Member  Joined: 05/07/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 96 |
Hi Bob, sorry to hear about the fire. Nobody got hurt. That's the main thing. But it sure is frustrating though. I learned the same lesson a few months ago. I have 2 shipping containers sitting parallel to each other. I was cutting arches between them and joining them together for a new house. My cutting torch sparks caught the stored furniture on fire in the next container. I exhausted the fire extinguisher that I had. Nothing to do but watch it burn. The containers are still in good shape, minus paint. That was my second time to walk away. First was the tornado last May. There's nothing to do but pick up the pieces, sort good from bad, laugh and start again. The 2 inch inch water line is in good repair and within 50 feet of the door! I though I could do without the water line because I'd never set anything but a small amount of grass on fire in 30 years of steel fabrication. Procrastination... philb |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Philb It is a hard lesson to take, we should know better but things happen to wake us up but sometimes it is to late then and as you say just start again. I realised my shed was not covered by insurance too so that is another thing to fix. Sorry to hear of your misfortune also but as you say after these events it is a bonus to just to be still alive and kicking. I was just lucky I had a water tank outside the door and a couple of old buckets to use otherwise it would be a case of watch it burn to. All the best for your rebuild. Bob Foolin Around |
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