Had 4 CO detectors going off last night!

[CenterTree]

Let me start by putting this up...

I am chalking this one up for a learning experience and I am posting for the benefit of others here so they don't repeat my stupid act. Hope it helps.

I had 4 different CO detectors going off last night!

I have a basement install.

Started a fire around 4pm. Prepped the fire box by removing the excess ash/coals as they were just getting to be too deep. Shoveled them into the ash kettle and set it aside (on concrete floor)

Had a nice fire going for several hours. It ran it's course and turned to large coals/embers by around 11pm.

Was upstairs on the PC when I here BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP downstairs. I go down to find the one VERY old CO detector going off. This is one I had just left plugged in near where the old oil burner was. I knew it was "expired" but kept it anyway just because. I have 3 NEW ones in the house.

I checked the fire. Looked good. Since we have four CO detectors in the house and only the old one was yelling at me I figured it was just emitting a "signal of expiration". So I unplugged it and took it upstairs to examine it. It is 21 years old.

As I get upstairs I hear another BEEP BEEP BEEP! downstairs.

Now my brain shifts gear completely. I go straight to the basement door, open it, open the window nearest the stove. I start to seriously ponder what the source may be. Naturally I am concentrating on the stove.

I reset the detector and continue the search. It goes off again and then another one at the TOP of the stairs goes off. I now open all windows in the house and the doors.

As I am standing near the stove I figure while I have the basement door open I may as well take out the ash kettle and dump it since it was really raining hard out anyway.

I grab the ash bucket and darn near burn my hand it is so hot. Well, now I am both relieved and very much wanting to kick myself in the "ASH."

The source.

I then set the can outside and leave the house open.

As I go upstairs again a 4th CO detector goes off down the hall near the bedrooms.


I am still amazed and surprised that the little bit of embers that I picked up in the shovel smoldered for hours and caused 4 alarms to go off. Thankfully the CO detectors did their job. I REALLY LEARNED a lesson last night. Hope this helps someone.



WOW. I had an unsettling night.
Not to mention when I went outside to dump the ashes later I was chased by a skunk.

 

[toddnic]

I almost burned my house down in 1992 doing that same thing. I NEVER leave any ash in the house that is outside of the woodstove.

 

[Thislilfishy]

Thanks for this. I have an ash can with a lid. I emptied hot ashes into I t and put the lid on, considered briefly just leaving the can on the hearth pad and taking it out later. The smell of the paint of the can scorching told me otherwise. I ended up going out into the snow storm and dumping it in the fire pit as usual. This was two nights ago...

Hearing your story I won't even consider it next time.

Ian

 

[DougA]

The first thing you should do when a CO detector goes off is open all the windows and doors. - you could pass out & die trying to find out what is happening. I'll let Jake answer better than this.

BTW, are you sure those are CO and not smoke detectors???

 

[CenterTree]

The first thing you should do when a CO detector goes off is open all the windows and doors. - you could pass out & die trying to find out what is happening. I'll let Jake answer better than this.

BTW, are you sure those are CO and not smoke detectors???

We have 3 smoke detectors and 4 CO detectors in our 900 square ft house.
The smokies we have are round, the CO's we have are rectangular.

The ash kettle was NOT smoking at all. It is "telling" that the smoke detectors did not even make a chirp.

There was NO odor at all in the house.

 

[begreen]

Winter checklist - check CO detectors - Done!

Glad everything turned out all right and you didn't get sprayed by the skunk. That would have set off every detector in the neighborhood.

 

[transmogrifire]

Just checked the batteries in mine. Thanks for the reminder.
Stay safe out there folks.

 

[Fod01]

You're reminding me yet again to get a CO detector for the garage

 

[BrotherBart]

Don't sit the bucket on the snow.

 

[Hobie]

Similiar thing happened to us a few weeks ago. An inch or so, of ash in the ash pail.

Scary thing was when the fire dept came, they measured CO throughout the house, even downstairs in the basement, through a closed door.

Don't assume the detector is malfunctioning. Be smart, open windows and get out of the house.

Hopefully this post will help save someone!

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah that is why I say that placement of the CO detector is irrelevant. CO mixes so fast and completely in the air that it is everywhere in a heartbeat. And can stop one.

 

[Poindexter]

Thanks for the reminder. I am in the habit of taking my ash pile out to the big can in the yard right away, clearly I need to keep doing that.

 

[McKeznak]

Great reminder, there have been nights were I have been very tempted to leave the ash can inside... and maybe a couple where i have . On the concrete basement floor of course, but a great reminder about the CO issues.

Plus perhaps a new CO detector is in order as well... The one I have came with the house.

Thanks!

 

[rideau]

Why not have a covered ash container? I use two stainless steel compost buckets, they work great. No air gets in, so no burning.

 

[Fod01]

You're reminding me yet again to get a CO detector for the garage

Bought it!

 

[Dieselhead]

IF your going to call the fire dept to come out and meter your house, please evacuate and leave windows and doors closed! If it's all vented out when arriving there will be no way to tell if there was co in the house or it's just a bad detector.

 

[Nick Mystic]

I think rideau hit the nail on the head with his comment about using a bucket with a lid for ashes. I have two five gallon buckets with lids that I use and keep outside. When one is filled up I start on the second bucket that way there is no chance I'm going to be dumping a bucket that could have hot coals/ashes in it.

 

[BrotherBart]

Why not have a covered ash container? I use two stainless steel compost buckets, they work great. No air gets in, so no burning.

Just as long as you get that stuff out of the house as soon as you take it out of the stove. No reason to keep it inside.

I tell the story every year. Grandpa used to scoop coals out of the fireplace and put them in a bucket and put it in the room where Dad and his brothers slept every night for heat. That must have been one hell of a leaky old farm house because they all lived to tell about it.

Of course it also may explain a couple of things about two of my uncles...

 

[CenterTree]

I would think any ash can with a lid would need to be air tight. I can't imagine any metal cans with air tight lids though.

Coals and embers in a can (even with a lid) can still smolder I believe.

As for me, I WILL be taking all ash outside IMMEDIATELY hence forward.

 

[CenterTree]

IF your going to call the fire dept to come out and meter your house, please evacuate and leave windows and doors closed! If it's all vented out when arriving there will be no way to tell if there was co in the house or it's just a bad detector.

Good point.

That does make sense if there is only ONE detector in play.

In my case, there were 4.

 

[BradleyW]

I use two stainless steel compost buckets, they work great. No air gets in, so no burning.

This is exactly what I do. I guess I've been more concerned with burning the house down with a stray ember than with CO. Maybe I should rethink my system.

 

[Hogwildz]

Ash in a can, with a lid, then take outside and put on and around noncombustible surfaces. There has been a few discussions over the years with members that think just because they have a lid on the can, they can leave it on the hearth. To each their own, my can goes outside every time, no exceptions. Not real hard to carry it a few feet through the back door and set it on the concrete patio.

 

[Rossco]

Lesson Lernt I guess.

So I get a phone call at 02:30am the other night, (Am at work) its the wife "CO alarm going off in the house, what should I do?" Kiddie integrated system with Voice alert.

Get the kids out, phone 911! she opened a few windows and the back door then went to the neighbour's house.

I thought it might have been the stove as she turns it down so it makes her shift.

Forced air outside exhaust duct blockage. 4" of ice formation.

I could hear the alarm going off during the phone call. One Of The creepiest sounds I've heard in a long time

Fire department said levels were 7ppm upper level and 25ppm lower. The wife evacuated the consentrate by simply opening the house up. Alarm should trigger @ 30ppm after a pre set exposure duration.

Check furnace ducts and install Alarms Saved my wife and kids

 

[rijim]

You're reminding me yet again to get a CO detector for the garage

You will more than likely get false trips all the time if you put these in the garage; every time the engine runs inside the garage you will set them off.

 

[CenterTree]

Lesson Lernt I guess.

So I get a phone call at 02:30am the other night, (Am at work) its the wife "CO alarm going off in the house, what should I do?" Kiddie integrated system with Voice alert.

Get the kids out, phone 911! she opened a few windows and the back door then went to the neighbour's house....


.....Fire department said levels were 7ppm upper level and 25ppm lower. The wife evacuated the consentrate by simply opening the house up. Alarm should trigger @ 30ppm after a pre set exposure duration.
s

Thankfully all was good with your family! Since your wife opened the windows B4 the dept got there, I wonder what the measurements would have been if she had not opened them?
Obviously higher.
Scary.

---------------------

My detectors are the kind without any digital readout. (we used to have one years ago) So I do not know what the ppm was in my house from the ash can, but I do know that the CO managed to make it ALL threw the house from the basement. (just as BrotherBart stated it does).

I am thinking to buy a digital one to add to the collection.