FIRE!

Since I use this blog as a semi journal, I felt I needed to post about the fire. I don't have any pics so just use your imagination. In the month of January we had 2 fires in our home. Now, before I go into more detail I want to clarify something. I LOVE my pellet stove.
The first fire started when I needed to clean the stove out. I started to suck out the ash with the shop vac and there were still hot embers burning. They got sucked into the vacuum and lit the filter on fire. Smoke was coming out all over. I opened the basement window and through the filter out. It was smooltering so much I threw snow on top, but that only made it worse. I then grabbed an empty ice cream bucket put the filter in it, through it out on the lawn, ran upstairs, told Phil I lit the house on fire. He ran outside and by that time, the plastic bucket was toast, smoke was ragging in the front yard and Ky was laughing. Biggest concern, smoke alarms did not go off. It was crazy, but we made it through with a little smell and no major damage. I'll be more careful next time I clean out the stove. We also checked all the smoke alarms and changed the batteries, just in case.

Second fire came at 4:00 a.m. about a week later. Phil woke up to the smell of campfire, I was dead to the world that night. He went downstairs to a basement full of smog. The auger got clogged in the stove and the pellets started to back up. The fire was so hot it started burning the pellets up inside the hopper. He "fixed" it (shut it off), but didn't dare go back to sleep. I got up around 7:45 and could smell it, but thought it was the stove burning out. He proceeded to tell me what had happened and once again, BIG concern, smoke alarms didn't go off. My house reeks of campfire, which is Ok when your outdoors, but not inside your house. That same morning we had to go clean the temple and I was embarrassed that we smelt like we just came off the mountain from cooking our smore's . It has been almost 2 weeks now, and my house smells a little better after an entire can of oust and carpet odor eliminator. We have yet to turn the stove back on because we need a part that has to be shipped from the manufacturer. I hope it is still useable, because it cuts down on my gas bill and I love how warm it is in the basement. However, I'm still a little concerned about the smoke detectors. I'm wondering if the company miss labeled them instead of smoke detectors they are really flame detectors. I mean I boil water on the stove and my they go off. What is the deal? Anyway, we survived and I hope that we don't have to do THAT again!