CLOSE CALL? "Pellet stove sparks Ludlow fire" posted YOUTUBE January 10, 2009

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Board Repair Dept

Member
Hearth Supporter
Mar 23, 2009
46
Ontario, CANADA
Three most important things to remember if you operate a pellet stove in your home.
MAINTENANCE, MAINTENANCE, MAINTENANCE

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LUDLOW, Mass. (WWLP) - A pellet stove is to blame for an early morning house fire in Ludlow. But a twist of fate may have saved the life of a ten year old, after flames destroyed his bedroom.

Manny Marques built his Ludlow home with his own two hands and wasn't about to watch it burn. Although his face was burned after he threw water on the flames until the fire department came.

"I have a lot of damage in my house, but if it wasn't for my husband I would have a lot more," said Eva Marques.

Their entire family came to comfort the couple. "We're a big Portuguese family and were here to help each other," said the fire victim's niece, Carmen Bastos.

Early Saturday morning flames broke out in the back of 23 Richard Rd. Investigators believe a clogged pellet stove that caused the fire. It left about eighty thousand dollars in damage; mostly to the Marques' grandson's room.

David typically sleeps there every night, but for some reason on Friday he insisted that he slept downstairs with his grandparents and everyone agrees it certainly averted a tragedy.

"Something told me, he kept bugging me to sleep downstairs and I gave in and thank God I gave in. I have a lot of damage, but it's a house and my little one is okay and husband is okay," said an emotional Marques.

The family is staying with family for a few weeks while their home is repaired.

SMOKE DETECTORS and Carbon Monoxide detectors should be maintained in good working order and could be your first line of defense.


Pellet Stove Controller Board-Repairman
 
I dont remember hearing about that..... its the next town over!!
 
iceman said:
I dont remember hearing about that..... its the next town over!!
I did not make this up. It was posted on YouTube January 10, 2009.

Everyone who owns a pellet stove should follow the maintenance schedule found in operators manual.
If you do not have the manual for your model, get one online or from a friend with the same stove.
Double check work done by contracted company that cleans your stove.
Some of the people I have repaired boards for have no idea the are two blowers in a BRECKWELL pellet stove and the service people where just there and charge a few hundred and clean the room air convection blower only.
Learn how to do it yourself and you can sleep better at night.
Also I would keep a fire extinguisher handy so it is readily available.

Never bypass any sensors or switches as many people on the internet suggest.
Shorting or bypassing a sensor (TOD) can cause permanent damage to your control board.
If you need advice on how to troubleshoot a thermo disc switch, drop me a email I will tell you how to check with a voltmeter.

Pellet Stove Controller Board-Repairman
 
Posted on YOUTUBE-February 12, 2009

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PLYMOUTH (WBZ) ― Ed Tavares and his wife Maria never made it out of their home.
Investigators believe it started in the wood stove Ed Tavares and his wife Maria used to heat their home on Cherry Street. The two-alarm fire broke out around 6:45 a.m.
Maria was found about five feet from the front door. She was rushed to Jordan Hospital, where she died. Firefighters tracked down her husband about ten feet inside. They were both in their 70's. They had been married for 48 years.




Their neice told WBZ the couple had been using the stove to heat their home for several years, because they couldn't afford to get a new furnace.

"The way that things are they were never able to fix it. It would cost upwards of thousands of dollars," said Wendy Barbosa.

"They actually slept on the couch next to the wood stove to stay warm at night."

Elderly Services in Plymouth told WBZ they never had any contact with the family.

The family said the couple may have decided not to contact a social service agency for help because of language barrier.

WBZ-TV

Pellet Stove Controller Board-Repairman
 
Posted o YouTube-January 05, 2009

YOU MUST HAVE WORKING SMOKE DETECTORS if you are using a wood stove.

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A fast-moving house fire that killed eight people, including four young boys and their mother, may have been caused by a wood stove, authorities in central New York said Monday. (Jan. 5)

Pellet Stove Controller Board-Repairman
 
Posted on YouTube

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Fire officials in Hingham believe a bag of hot ashes from a pellet stove left on wooden steps started the four-alarm blaze that destroyed more than half of a sprawling Crooked Meadow Lane house Tuesday.
Fire Chief Mark Duff said occupants of the house, in a residential neighborhood off Route 228, were ``very fortunate'' to escape the fire without injury.
Officials believe the fire was smoldering within the walls of the 8,000-square-foot home for several hours before homeowner Penny Collins-Siridee smelled smoke. It took firefighters from eight South Shore towns about six hours to bring the blaze under control. Two Hingham firefighters suffered minor injuries when they slipped and fell on ice.
``This was one of the most stubborn fires I've ever seen,'' said Hingham Fire Capt. William Powers, a 22-year veteran.
Powers said the family is fortunate that the fire didn't take hold until later in the morning. ``If this fire was at 2 or 3 in the morning, I'm afraid the outcome would've been a lot worse,'' Powers said.
The location of the house on a heavily wooded lot at the end of a winding driveway about a quarter-mile long made it more difficult for firefighters to get at the blaze. When firefighters arrived on Crooked Meadow Lane they stopped at the wrong address. Duff said a large amount of steam rising off the roof of a neighbor's house at first appeared to be the house that was on fire.
Duff said that delayed the response by less than two minutes.
Duff said it was challenging driving fire equipment up the icy driveway. To get enough water, firefighters had to run hoses off the single hydrant on Crooked Meadow Lane and another hydrant about a half mile away on Main Street.
Collins-Siridee and Kevin Kernan, a contractor working on an addition to the home, said about 45 minutes passed from the time 911 was called and the first sprays of water hit the house.
``It was already engulfed to the roof, full-blown,'' Collins-Siridee said. ``I'm in the woods here, and it was a very difficult fire to put out.''
Duff said an early estimate put the damage at more than $1 million. According to town records, the house and surrounding property are valued at about $1.7 million. Collins-Siridee, keeping warm with family members and friends inside a minivan in front of her home, said the part of the house she lived in was destroyed. She planned to stay with family Tuesday night but, still shaken, was unsure of her plans beyond that.
``I need to clear my head and put some thoughts together,'' she said. ``Thank God there were no injuries.''
Kernan, the contractor who is also a family friend, agreed.
``I feel so sorry for her, but it's fortunate no lives were lost,'' he said. ``I can rebuild anything exactly how it was.'' It was about 10 a.m. when Kernan, working in the middle of the house, smelled smoke and ran to the other end of the house. He found Collins-Siridee trying to douse the fire on the steps with water. But Kernan soon realized the fire was inside the wall. He said he heard ``crackling'' and removed part of the exterior wall with a crowbar and could see the fire had already spread and called 911.
Collins-Siridee and Kernan escaped. Collins-Siridee's 17-year-old daughter, Kelly, was at school. A couple and their infant who were renting a completed addition at the opposite end of the house from where the fire started also escaped unharmed. Noah Rafalko said he and his family were ``glad to be OK.''
The fire never reached that end of the house. Powers said firefighters cut trenches in the roof that kept the fire from spreading to a section that was under construction and the occupied addition. Duff said it was unclear whether there were working fire detectors in the home. It is unlikely detectors would have alerted occupants to the fire any sooner than they discovered it because it was contained in the walls for so long, Duff said.

Pellet Stove Controller Board-Repairman
 
Posted on YouTube-November 12, 2008

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The 911 phones lit up around 4:45 on Nov 12 reporting a structure fire in Brisson St. Co's arriving found the garage fully involved with heavy fire spreading inside, eventually coming thru the roof.

Pellet Stove Controller Board-Repairman
 
Posted on YouTube-February 27, 2009

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At 1838 Lyons Fire Company, Along with Ruscomanor, Fleetwood, and Kutztown, were dispatched to Davids Dr. Rockland Township for a wood stove malfunction. Chief Officers arrived on location to find a Pellet Stove which had overflowed causing a smoke condition in the residence. All companies, with the exception of Lyons, and the apparatus on location from Ruscomanor were recalled. Assistance was given to the homeowner for ventilation and checking the structure for carbon monoxide. No levels were detected. Lyons Fire Company was back at station at 1925.

Pellet Stove Controller Board-Repairman
 
SMOKE DETECTORS and Carbon Monoxide detectors should be maintained in good working order and could be your first line of defense.

EVERYONE PLEASE BE SAFE...EH!

Pellet Stove Controller Board-Repairman
 
I wonder what that contraption (briefly pictured) is that he has on the front of his Englander pellet stove ?
 
the more I read these the more I love my OUTDOOR pellet boiler.
 
Gio said:
I wonder what that contraption
(briefly pictured) is that he has on the front of his Englander pellet stove ?

Looks to me like he was trying to put the heat elsewhere.
 

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zeta said:
Gio said:
I wonder what that contraption
(briefly pictured) is that he has on the front of his Englander pellet stove ?

Looks to me like he was trying to put the heat elsewhere.

i saw that too, im not sure what it is unless its some attempt like you said to push heat into a duct or another room , wont work too much static pressure. by the way that unit is not legal to be installed in a sleeping room.

i have to echo the OP on this one especially CLEAN YOUR STOVES!!!! check your flues!!!!! a stove does not cause a fire,but lack of due diligence will.
 
zeta said:
Gio said:
I wonder what that contraption
(briefly pictured) is that he has on the front of his Englander pellet stove ?

Looks to me like he was trying to put the heat elsewhere.
No he thought that was the exhaust and was venting it outside...

And to echo Mike. solid fuel appliances are NOT to be installed in bedrooms......At least in Mass, but I think its NFPA too..

and to the OP. the 5 most important things...
1 Proper install
2 smoke/ CO detector
3 Maintenance
4 Maintenance
5 Maintenance.
 
On a serious note
After looking at the video again and the still picture in Zetas post... The stove looks intact as does the room around the stove, were missing some info here......
perhaps it threw a spark out the flue and sparked leaves on the ground and ignited the house from the outside...... Probably had the exhaust flue too close to a shrub or some combustible, just a thought..
 
GVA said:
On a serious note
After looking at the video again and the still picture in Zetas post... The stove looks intact as does the room around the stove, were missing some info here......
perhaps it threw a spark out the flue and sparked leaves on the ground and ignited the house from the outside...... Probably had the exhaust flue too close to a shrub or some combustible, just a thought..


i noticed that too, i'd really love to see what the inside and outside parts of the install looked like.
 
if you stop the video and look at the exterior shots, there appears to be an exhaust pipe a few feet long coming out of the house a foot or so above the ground. surrounded by what looks like burnt shrubs. there's nothing on the end of the pipe. this could explain it, maybe a super bad (and stupid) self installation?
 
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