It was the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring.....

Cold Christmas eve the husband and wife just finished wrapping the presents and placed them in their bedroom Closet. They had that old 70�s Franklin Stove blazing as they retired for bed. An hour or so later they and their children and huddled in blankets out side as the fire dept extinguished the blaze.

It was reported to me, the wife smelled smoke and saw it coming from the closet. When the husband opened the closet door the rush of air fed the flame and it just about exploded. The wife grabbed some blankets and rousted the children as they all made it to the outside safely. Being Christmas eve the fire station is minimally staffed. By the time they arrived the fire was exiting the roof windows fully engulfed. 4 hours later and two additional calls for aid the fire was extinguished.

The day after Christmas I receive the call to do the findings cause inspection. I review the fire dept incident report and really I only going there to confirm the obvious.

The Franklin stove is not air tight almost every clearance to combustibles is in violation But the primary cause was the single wall pipe that went threw the rear wall into the closet the threw the ceiling and out the roof. The incident report states the paper wrapped presents appeared to ignite first.

I find out that this is the second fire dept visit to this home. The first one the clothes in that closet ignited. The fire dept was able to quickly extinguish that one and little damage was done. They had told the owners to get rid of the stove and venting.

But some people never learn. I was not involved in the first fire investigation. I never knew it occurred till I read this report. At the office I pull the file on that property guess what no permits. The stove is old enough; it could have been installed prior to requiring permits. This one fact, probably favored the homeowner, when collecting the insurance claim. They apparently never filed any claims for the first fire incident