Problems locating the source and turning off the power temporarily prevented the Cleburne firefighter from trying to put out a house fire.
Firefighters responded to a single-story apartment building on the 800 block of South Ridgeway Drive at 2:31 p.m. on July 14.
One resident called 911 to report that he could “smell some electrical burning” and that the house was filling with smoke.
When the fire brigade arrived, light smoke emerged from a vent at the northern end of the roof. All inmates were outside. The fire brigade found an uninjured cat, which they brought back to the residents.
Residents told the fire department that the water heater made noises after two sockets ignited and sizzled.
The fire brigade found that no smoke alarms could be seen or heard in the house.
The fire brigade found that water was spraying from a hole in the cold water connection of the water heater and that electrical cables were glowing. The fire department turned off a water heater marked with a breaker, but the problem persisted. They pulled out the house’s electricity meter, but the water heater continued to show signs of inductive heating from the ground wire.
“Significant charring was found above the water heater and the wire feeding the water heater showed signs of melting,” reports said. “During the overhaul, the neutral wire connected to the water heater started glowing red, indicating that the structure was still receiving electrical power.”
Firefighters were called out of the house until Oncor employees arrived to cut all power to the house. Oncor workers arrived shortly after and cut power to the entire neighborhood. It has been determined that the source of energy comes from an underground utility line between the meter riser and the utility pole.
The fire department fetched a car from the garage of the house. They entered the attic where they found “a decent amount of fire and smoke consuming the stored contents”.
Firefighters put out the fire and cut ventilation holes in the roof to remove the smoke.
Firefighters responded to reports of a fire at 8:03 p.m. on July 9 in the 1700 block of West Henderson Street to find smoke coming from the door of a small laundry room.
Firefighters quickly put down the fire, which was contained in a dryer with about 150 liters of water. A fire sprinkler in the room was reportedly “not exposed to enough heat to be activated”.
A check of the connected rooms and the attic for fire or heat expansion turned out negative.
The fire department removed the dryer from the room.
Firefighters responded to reports of a burning lawnmower at 5:31 p.m. on July 21 on the 1200 block of Joslin Street. There they found a Troy Bilt ride-on mower on a back yard fence with the engine bay and cutting deck actively involved in the flames. The heat from the fire had melted the mower’s tires. Clippings that had piled under and around the mower were also on fire. The fire brigade put out the fire, which did not damage any buildings, but burned an area of about 25 square meters.
Reports list the fire as unintentional but also list lack of cleaning as a contributing factor.
Comments are closed.