Sunday was a busy day, some of which spilled into Monday. I posted here (saints be praised!), painted, finished loading a thirty-yard dumpster with the evidence of a former form of industry, painted some more and began work on the final phase of work for my exhibit this coming March.

In between the last two activities I caught an odor that I did not care for: the smell of something too hot for it's or anyone's good. Although the source seemed elusive, it seemed to be strongest behind the pellet stove*, so to be on the safe side I turned it off and made a mental note to examine it further once it cooled down. Then I set to making a test recording of my singing voice.

I found the sound intriguing even though some fine tuning would be in order. This took a little while, the testing and screening, and as the tea had begun to fully cycle through my body, stood up to go pee. It was then I saw the orange flicker through the grating on the sides of the stove.

The stove is on rollers as it sits back into the cavity of an old fireplace. I pulled it out to see flames at the top of the stainless flex hose that connects to the flue. The hose itself was glowing. Yes, holy shit.

I knew there was a fire extinguisher nearby but could not remember exactly where. It was not immediately visible in the studio. In the laundry room? No. I began to run upstairs to get the one I knew was in the hallway closet, but then thought better of it. First, I would set off an early alarm in the wife, which might be counterproductive, and second, the smoke was quickly filling the room which would set off the smoke alarm connected to the alarm company. I decided to make a more targeted search for the downstairs extinguisher, and barring that get some water from the deep sink.

I found the extinguisher behind some cardboard destined for the burn pile (funny, huh?) and was able to put out the fire rather quickly, but not without several sprays of the powdery retardant. And the alarm went off anyway, but not before the fire was damped and the wife finally notified.

I wish I would have used the water. While certainly grateful that I was present when the fire caught, I am now in the process of cleaning up the extinguisher residue. It's on and in everything.

The chimney/stove guy came out yesterday to have a look. It seems the design of the connector between the pipe and flue is flawed, allowing for creosote to build up on a lip/ledge. A new connector will be fabricated. Still, I find it curious that this same fellow, and a couple others as well, has serviced this stove a half-dozen times over the years and n one saw fit to comment on the potential — now realized — danger.

I had intended to call my mother Sunday. I guess I'll do that now.


*For those of you wondering what a pellet stove is, for I was also unfamiliar with them before moving here, think wood burning stove, but instead of logs as fuel, small pellets of compress sawdust are fed from a hopper by an auger into the  area where combustion takes place. A fan then pushes the heat into the room while another is supposed to channel smoke up the chimney. The latter is not strong enough to push everything upwards, so there is a "T" at the base of the pipe that one empties. Got the full picture now?