Almost had a fire in the shop last night

arw01 wrote:
> My normal shop heater is a blue flame 15KBTU propane heater. But the
> damn Home Depot bought regulater fritzed out yesterday when I needed to
> warm the place up to pad on some shellac for a nearly complete project.
>
> SO I pack a small space electrical heater out there, plug it in and
> leave it on for a couple hours to warm the place up a bit. Go out, pad
> on my shellac and am standing near the heater. Remembering I need to
> clean the back screen off I discover that it is removable.
>
> This job finished up in a couple of minutes, I put it all back
> together, and smell a bit smoke. Figure it is the dust that always
> gets onto elements when you clean an electric heater. BUT NO, I happen
> to stand around thinking a bit longer and bend down and see the plug-in
> that sits on my table saw cabinet is curing little wisps of smoke.
>
> So I quickly kill the switch next to the outlet, unpluf the cord to the
> wall and pull the cover off the outlet there. A bit of sawdust on the
> bottom, but it was likely not enought to burn and continue a fire. But
> I see the guy I had bought the saw from, never tighed the screws that
> the wire touched! The hot line copper was black from charring, the
> plastic and paper back a ways about 3" were gone now.
>
> $20 at the bord and I have a new set of 20 amp switches, and plugs to
> replace the whole set with!
>
> Alan

Count yourself lucky you were there and it didn't get out of hand!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4390048.stml

Overfly picture:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/31/south_research_fire/


Today was busy, and I'm knackered, still got a job, for now....
In the cold light of day I've been to my office and to several other
parts of the complex, the main research cleanrooms are gone and my
office building is likely to be condemmed.

Niel.