house lost to bag of ashes placed outside next to woodpile

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bag of hammers

bag of hammers

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Jan 7, 2010
1,442
Northern ON
Damn. I feel for the people, but am still perplexed by this from the article: "The fire is no longer considered suspicious and was not caused by negligence, Ross said Sunday afternoon. “It was an accident. Accidents do happen.”"

Well, they didn't do it on purpose, but that doesn't preclude negligence.

Sounds like a nice dry woodpile, though.
 
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Before I read the article I figured the pile was stacked along side the house. This time of yr with everything wet or snow covered that is just plain sad but putting them in a bag......well I'll stop there.
 
Adios Pantalones said:
Damn. I feel for the people, but am still perplexed by this from the article: "The fire is no longer considered suspicious and was not caused by negligence, Ross said Sunday afternoon. “It was an accident. Accidents do happen.”"

Well, they didn't do it on purpose, but that doesn't preclude negligence.

Sounds like a nice dry woodpile, though.
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I am just glad to finally see an "accident" recognized. Around here for the last few years somebody has to have been negligent and somebody has to be charged with it when anything happens. No matter how much personal loss to them resulted.
 
BrotherBart said:
I am just glad to finally see an "accident" recognized. Around here for the last few years somebody has to have been negligent and somebody has to be charged with it when anything happens. No matter how much personal loss to them resulted.
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In general we live in a country where every stupid thing someone does is always someone else's fault and they need to be sued...sigh..
 
This is almost a repeat of the tragic fire that happened last winter in CT. I'm so glad that this time no one was home.
 
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I think they had the homeowner on camera for a few seconds - understandably seemed to be a bit of a wreck. Could be that everything was working against them today (in a hurry to get going, it's the middle of the night, they're headed for airport, the roads a crap, accidents all over the place, they gotta get an even earlier start 'cause of freezing rain, still might not make their flight, or flight may be cancelled, the travel stresses are piling up, etc. etc etc.) - then its "oh yeah, the fireplace still has some ashes in it - yeah, gotta get that outside too.." - then an otherwise cautious person makes a tragic mistake.

Not a smart thing to do, but as the king of stupid human tricks, I feel for these guys. I recall 3 day old ashes heating up some scrap in a garbage bag out on the edge of my driveway. I could not believe it - that long in the bottom of the stove, and still had some heat. Maybe they had a similar scenario - no fire for a day or so, assumed things were stone cold...?

Now I have a metal can large enough to hold a season of ash from weekend burning, tight fitting lid, sitting on a 2' x 2' concrete pad, on a gravel bed. If I had tossed that bag in the back of the truck, or out right beside the house, etc. things could have been worse.
 
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It's not that I want to speak ill of them, honestly. Negligence implies- should have known better, or - a reasonable person wouldn't have done the same.

Like driving a car, operating a wood stove comes with learning and responsibility. I hope that someone learns from their mistake.
 
Wow, that is terrible to see, most likely just in a rush to head off to the airport at 3am with little sleep...

Recently I had my neighbor let me know my railroad ties were smoldering outside, I had dumped a pan of ashes out there after they spent only 12 hours cooling off in the garage. My own stupid fault, but I figured the 3' of snow I was dumping them in would make short work of anything left behind. My own dumb fault, and I'm very lucky my neighbor is out there every morning at 8am having his first smoke of the day... It wasn't anywhere near the house, but it could have torched a pop up camper if it could reach out 6'. I'm far more cautious of those little buggers now, that pan only had 3/4" or so of ash in it!
 
Seems to me that the best place for ashes would be in the FIREPLACE. Isn't it a place made to contain fire?
 
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