This will make your heart come up in your throat, and your sphincter do the Momba

Mark Eatherton

I sat down to watch the local evening news the other night, and they broke in with "Breaking NEWS"....



They had a helicopter circling around a house that was fully involved with fire. It took me a second, and suddenly, I realized that it was a house that I had recently done some consulting on for heating issues, which included the need for a fuel line increase. My liability insurance will NOT cover me for any LP fuel lines, so another contractor did the fuel line. Fortunately, no human lives were lost, but the lady lost a substantial live bird collection (Parrots, Macaws, Parakeets, Love Birds, etc)



I just found out that the ATF and Colorado Bureau of Investigation had completed their initial investigation and determined that the home took a direct lightning hit.



PHEWWWwww....



Here's a link to the pictures of the home going up in smoke. The local fire department is 5 minutes away, and by the time they got there, it was FULLY involved, with fire coming out of every opening in the home.



And yes, there was CSST in the home, but as we've discussed before, not even B.I.P. can withstand a direct lightning hit.



The owner wants to retain me to do the new replacement work. Looks like its going to be a busy summer...



Here's a link to the pictures from the helicopter.



<a href="http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=195282">http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=195282</a>



ME

Paul Fredricks_3

wow

I wonder if lightning rods would have prevented this.



Very impressive video. I hope the FD uses it for training. They sprayed a lot of water, but some fell short and some went right over the top of the house. Been there my self. It's hard to know where that water is going when you are sitting behind the nozzle.

meplumber

Similar happened to me about 15 yrs ago.

I was watching the evening news and they were talking about a fire at a home that I had done some gas work at a couple weeks before.



Thankfully, the cause of the fire was an unattended candle, but wow what a wake up moment.  I couldn't sleep that night worrying about it.



I have a colleague that uses the internet handle "firestarter".  He says that is what we do.  We go to people's homes and start controlled fires.  It is the controlled part that sometimes gives us trouble.

TonyS

The big question

Are you going to repipe the propane with csst or black pipe?

Mark Eatherton

It will be black iron pipe, but....

as we've discussed here, even that system would not be capable of withstanding a direct hit. The HO said the insurance company investigator was aware of the CSST, but that it wouldn't hold up the re-construction process.



My take is, that even though the lightning was the primary reason, their attorneys will be speaking with the CSST attorneys to talk about possible participation in the claim...



I suspect, based on the video, that the presence of the CSST probably contributed to the intensity of the blaze. This puppy was H O T...



ME