Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Fire that Wouldn't Die

Last night I used one of those 3-hour crackle logs in our fireplace around 8pm. I woke up in the middle of the night (around 4am) and smelled smoke. But the fireplace was closed and there was NO way it could get out, plus when I went to bed there weren't any flames left, just a smoldering log. So I finished peeing and went back to bed. Flash forward to this morning. STILL smoldering. House smells like a campfire.

I don't think it's a big deal because I can air it out later. Just to be safe, I go downstairs and pour a cup of water over the hunk of log that's left.

Heater kicks on about 20 minutes later and smoke is billowing out of the vent. The air intake is downstairs and it's bringing puffs of smoke through the ventilation. Uh-oh.

So I go downstairs again and break the log up, realize the fire is being choked for oxygen and that's why it's coming out the front and not going through the chimney. So I open the glass doors and pour more water over the now-crumbled log.

Now it's 10:45am. I beat a couple of levels on the New Super Mario Bros and have opened a window, the door, turned the heater off, and turned on the ceiling fan. There was a haze of smoke that needed to exit and fast.

After I turned off the game I thought I saw a few orange glowing embers in the fireplace. This is the fire that WILL NOT DIE!

So a third cup of water is needed to extinguish this blasted fire.

It's now 12:30pm. A 3-hour log has been burning for 16 hours! And I'm going to shower really fast and then check it again. It better not be smoking anymore. My house smells like a hotel room billed as non-smoking, but it definitely has that 'previously a smoking room' scent. ICK!

1 comment:

Micah and Melinda said...

hahaha! That is too funny!