yeah, I don’t even know where that Wheelock horn/light thing is. probably in a box in the basement somewhere.
I’ve had a few cooking fires. Of course, not ones that happened at convenient hours, always after midnight. one was years ago, I hadn’t lived here too long, and built-up grease under the stove burners caught fire. when I came downstairs, fire was coming up from all four burners, and the pan was on fire.
to this day, there is still fire extinguisher powder in the clock window of my stove.
Another one was when I came home and ironically had just placed a phone call to the police about a suspicious driver. I sat down, after putting some water on the stove for some soup, and diverted my attention away for a few seconds. looked up, thick white smoke was pouring out of the kitchen, and at the same time, my system was tripped. called the central station to cancel the dispatch, as I’m putting the fire out with a fire extinguisher. I told them I had the fire “under control” and they were a bit concerned. but, nothing came of it. turns out, I had the wrong burner on, and there was an Ademco 747 security system siren near the stove that caught fire. ironically. a home burglary/fire sounder caught fire and there was nothing left. the plastic went up into the air with the smoke, and formed cobweb-like formations all over the walls, ceilings and windows.
And the last was a month or so ago, put some water on the stove for some tea, and had a very strange hot flash where all my skin turned red and was burning, like a bad sunburn all at once. I have sensitive skin and am a bit touchy with scented products. I had to take a cold shower, it was a bit of an emergency. got out ten minutes later, forgot about the teapot. there was no real fire, the pot had boiled empty and the plastic handle melted down onto the burner and made a few flames. disabled the smoke zone before the first detector was triggered just seconds later. although, a battery-powered ionization smoke sitting on a TV cabinet near the dining room table sounded, and it was nowhere near the ceilling. it’s amazing how just a little bit of plastic can (1) make enough smoke to fill two floors of a house, and (2) create an unpleasant, acrid stench for a week.
Just two or three weeks ago, the weekend just before Thanksgiving, in York Haven, PA, four houses were totally gutted and destroyed by a late-night fire. Thirteen people were left without a place to live. I showed up about 45 minutes into the fire, and there was really nothing left. the fire just jumped from one house to the next like a stick of matches laid next to each other. The streets were lined with fire apparatus for miles. a four-alarm fire, I believe, and some 30-40 fire engines were there. it burned from about midnight to well into the morning. I have a picture on my phone of the aftermath the evening after the fire: a flattened span of black rubble and sheet metal, with one or two spots still smoldering.