Merry freaking Christmas!!

The good news is that the truck and my Harley survived also.

I have a little warning for you all. I had set my dishwasher for a 2 hour delay Tuesday morning. Got myself a cup of coffee, took my shower, dressed and headed out to go to work. Around 10:45 AM or so I got a call from my alarm company saying the house was reporting a fire alarm and they were dispatching the fire trucks.

I live 2.5 miles from the office and the fire department is in between my office and my home. I headed home and saw the fire trucks turning to make the run down Broadway to my neighborhood. I got stuck in traffic and got to the house a couple minutes after the fire department. This is what I first saw:


My first thought was; "Is the garage involved?" I asked the Captain there and he got on the radio. The reply was a fireman opening the garage door and them allowing me to remove my Harley in case the ceiling caved in.


Then I walked around to the rear of the house and was met by this sight, Firemen walking through what was once my plate glass picture window in the dining room.



Once the fire was out and the smoke cleared they let me get closer to take some more photos. Here is the view of my Kitchen. I don't normally leave my sink that dirty. The red tag is on the dishwasher.



Another angle of the Kitchen. You can see where I had pictures stuck on the fridge with magnets.



What's left of the Dining Room.



Looking in the front door through the Living Room while they douse some residual embers in the attic.



A view of the garage. Very fortunate there as there was little damage except for the ceiling falling in with one of my rear fenders.



The point of origin was determined to be the vicinity of the dishwasher. I found a recall notice:

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07190.html

When I scrolled down to the photo of the model shown I got a chill down my spine. It was a picture of my dishwasher. If you have one that is on the list, please by all means available, contact the manufacturer for a repair. Normally I set the unit to run 2 hours after I go to sleep.

Monday afternoon I filled the dishwasher and was going to set it after dinner to run while I slept. I forgot to set it and remembered the next morning when I didn't have a spoon to stir my coffee because they were all dirty. I set the unit and this is what happened.

If I had set the dishwasher Monday night I don't think I would have survived.

The upside is I get a totally remodeled house. The downside is I get a totally remodeled house with no mementos or art.

 

Oh Man! I feel for you. Although what counts is that no one was hurt.
Do you have insurance, another place to live?

 

Thats terrible! On the flip side it could have been worse. Maybe it was supposed to happen this way for you to inform others. Glad you are OK

 

That is is a tuff break. Glad you are ok.

 

Sorry to hear of your house fire. Very glad to hear you are OK!! Can always rebuild.

 

First is I'm glad you are not hurt.

And superficially, I'm glad your truck and bike are ok, but what a horrible thing to have happen for the Holidays.

When I read you note, and youhinted at the dishwasher, I said to myself "I'll bet ya a million dollars that's a General Electric dishwasher and it caught fire.

Then I opened your recall link and sure enough.

Folks, oddly, from an electrical standpoint GENERAL ELECTRIC APPLIANCES ARE A DISASTER. DO NOT BUY THEM. Their printed circuits are exposed to soap and moisture and are generally very weak to start with. Also, Hotpoint appliances are made by GE do not buy them either....Buy Maytag!

Sorry to see this happen to you!

 

WOW! Sorry about the damage but glad to hear that you are OK. My parents home burnt to the ground a number of years ago, I will never forget the smell of the debris as I was digging through it looking for their valuables. Good luck on the rebuilding effort, I'm sure this wasn't on your "to-do" list for December.

 

Whoa!!

Man, am I glad that you and yours are ok and no one was hurt! Also a big bonus that the bike and truck aren't damaged.

I'll check my dishwasher as soon as I walk in the door this afternoon. I can't remember what brand it is. I installed it just about this time last year.

Bobby

 

Glad to hear you are OK. My Dads house burned awhile ago and he lost everything. It started from a welding spark in the garage that smoldered for 8 hours before it when up at 2 in the morning.He almost had it out but ran out of extengisers.

 

You got your life - the rest are memories.
I'm truely thankful that you are not a memory.

 

Glad you are alright! Is there a bigger garage in the future now?

 

That blows no matter what time of year, but your ok. I had a simular thing happen with a printer. The good news the bike and truck survived and so will you.

 

Very sorry for your loss it looks like a big mess for Christmas! I immediately checked my Sears dishwasher and it is not in the list. Thanks for posting the link.

 

Holy Smokes!
That's terrible. but am glad you are Ok. looks like pretty much everything inside is toast? I hope you had good insurance.

slight hijack here: My neighbors ran their sprinklers last spring until it flooded my basement and I fought my insurance, and their insurance for 18k in damages. my insurance said to bad so sad, and there insurance wanted to settle for 50% after months of dealing with them. I hired an attorney and sent them a Letter and ended up settling for 70% (just last week) still sucks but at least got more and didn't have to spend thousands in attorney fees and time to sue them.

I'm in the process of doing the repairs myself to save money since the settlement didn't cover everything.
anyway to make a long story short we should all (including myself) review our insurance policies very closly and make sure we are covering the structure plus everything inside to the max, plus make sure they don't exclude coverage due to a fire in the garage or maybe if you have a welder or some such thing I could see them excluding coverage from that type of thing and we would be screwed. that's always been my fear that if a fire started in the garage they would find some loophole exclusion, Insurance company's are only out to protect one person and that's themselves.

I hope you don't have to fight with them on this one.

Josh

 

I glad nothing happen to you! Sad to say but you have nice pics of the damage and the work being done to save the house or whats left! You can always rebuild but you can rebuild you or a loved one! I hope all works out or you!!