Friday, June 22, 2012

My heroic dog

When I get up in the morning, and when I get home in the afternoon, I open the fire door to let the oxygen in and get the coals burning so I can stick another piece of wood on the fire. This usually doesn't take long, a few minutes. I'm usually in the loungeroom when I'm waiting for the fire to wake up.

The other evening I got home and the fire was just about out. Not a glow at all. I put some wood into it and then lit a firelighter. It wasn't taking at all. It was going to be a cold night and an even colder morning.

After faffing around the house a bit I decided to have a shower. While I was in the shower Floyd started barking. The warning bark. I thought he must be barking at a bloody bandicoot or possum so I told him to hush. I wear earplugs in the shower as I've had surgery on one ear and it's not good for it to get wet (myringoplasty, look that up! Not a pleasant experience at all.)

I could only hear Floyd barking, barking, barking. He wouldn't shut up! I told him I was coming but he kept barking.

He was still going when I got out of the shower and pulled out the earplugs - I could hear the fire alarm in the loungeroom going off! So could Floyd!!

The fire was so hot that the dust behind it was burning and there wasn't any smoke to see but the alarm could see it! I shut the door properly and shut off the air with the damper at the bottom of the firebox - apparently new fires these days you can't do that, they reckon they pollute too much - so tell me, what do you do if the fire gets out of control?

Floyd is my hero!

Update:
I don't think I've made it clear when I spoke about shutting down the fire. Recently I was told that with the new fires you can't control the level of air getting into the fire so you can't dampen it down, this is because a smouldering fire puts out more smoke than a flaming one. The fire was roaring, but still fully contained in the firebox, the smoke was coming from the burning dust in behind the fire and in the decorative cover on the chimney.

8 comments:

Merilyn said...

Well done Floyd! An extra treat for you is on its way.

Good thing he was there Kae.

Minicapt said...

"… what do you do if the fire gets out of control?"
1. Make sure the insurance is paid up.
2. Move to a location further away.
3. Figure out what you did which led to the fire getting out of control, and then try not to do that again.

Theory says that you should have a system where by you can close down the fire while you are absent, such that the fire remains unable to spread.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Generally the way that the fire in a woodstove (or such) can get out of control is (as seems to have happened) you leave something (a door, an ashpan access area, etc.) slightly open, so that a self-induced jet of air can get going. Basically, you created a blast furnace right in your living room! Cutting off the air flow as much as possible is indeed the remedy - it cools down REALLY quickly when you turn off the air jet.

BTW, my work has taken me to Istanbul, if you'd like some scenic photos of Bosphorus and the old city...

-- The Indomitable Snowman, Ph.D.

kae said...

Thanks, Snowy. Some photos would be nice - a bit of commentary, too?

Carpe Jugulum said...

Floyd the wonder dog - is there nothing he can't do

Minicapt said...

BBQ?

Cheers

Merilyn said...

Don't worry Minicapt, Floyd is working on it!

kc said...

Gotta love that pup...but it was +104 with a heat index of 136F yesterday - your description of your fire made me very uncomfortable!

So glad you have Floyd and that all is well in your corner of the world.