TMCnet News
Fires can hide for weeks before igniting: Flames in attics are especially dangerous, as a Clovis man discovered.(Fresno Bee (CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jun. 14--Richard Cressall now knows how dangerous an attic fire can be. With flames crackling above his ceiling, the Clovis resident was not awakened by a smoke detector's siren or the odor of burning insulation. Rather, it was a stranger banging at his front door that may have saved the lives of Cressall, 66, and five family members last month. Local fire officials say fires can smolder in attic insulation for days and even weeks before fully igniting. Some new homes include attic smoke detectors, but local fire officials disagree on whether they are a good idea. "That fire could be raging up there, and you wouldn't know it," Clovis Fire Chief Mark Aston said. Still, Aston said, the Clovis Fire Department used to recommend attic smoke detectors but recently changed its stance because they can be easily set off by dust and other floating particles. "I would hate to tell someone not to put in a smoke detector, but it's prone to false activation," he said. Ken Shockley, a spokesman for the Fresno Fire Department, said attic smoke detectors are not recommended because of the large number of false alarms. But Michael Bowman, a spokesman for the Fresno County Fire Department, said he has a smoke detector in his attic. "The fact that you have one is better than not having one," he said. Local officials estimated that from 30% to more than half of house fires involve attics. Shockley said there have been 42 attic fires in Fresno in the past 18 months. Most are caused by faulty or exposed electrical wiring in equipment such as cooling and heating units, which can be noticed during an inspection by a licensed electrician. Aston said the fire at Cressall's house, caused by faulty wiring from a ceiling fan, might have been smoldering for several days. He said odors and smoke coming from vents are ways to detect what he calls "hidden space fires." Many times, the fire is first noticed outside the home. That is what happened with the Cressall fire. Larry Husted, a circulation district manager for The Bee, said he was driving north on Armstrong Avenue about 5:45 a.m. when he saw gray smoke rising from Cressall's home. Husted got out of his vehicle and began pounding on the front door. Cressall opened the door several minutes later, and Husted pointed out the smoke. "As soon as I got to the house, I could smell fire," Husted said. "I was about to kick the door down." Cressall said he went back into the house to wake his wife, two sons, mother-in-law and 97-year-old mother, and usher them out. He saw that the fire was collapsing the ceiling above the living room. "He literally saved our lives," Richard Cressall said of Husted. "We would have lost everything." Instead, firefighters arrived within minutes and saved the house. The Cressalls were displaced for only a week. Cressall said he has seven smoke detectors in his house, but none went off because there was no smoke below the attic. Cressall said he will look into adding a smoke detector in his attic. "I could feel the heat bake through the ceiling. It was like an inferno," Cressall said. "The Fire Department said we had five to 10 minutes tops." The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559) 441-6679. |