From one crisis to the next

Poststructural Pub
1

You may recall a couple of weeks back I posted about the lovely “smash and grab” I experienced while on vacation.

Here cometh the next crisis:

Wednesday morning, I woke up around 6 am. It was still a little dark in the house. Went to the privy for my normal morning rituals, and noticed that my nostrils were all black. I blew my nose, and discovered that my sinuses were black as well. Overnight, the exhaust from my oil burner became detached from the chimney flue, and vented the exhaust into my basement all night, which in turn blew through all our heating vents all night, which left my house full of heaing oil smoke, and everything covered with a fine, oily, carcinogous soot. Unless you’ve had this sort of thing happen to you before (a fire’ll do it, too), you really have no idea how insidious this sort of thing is. There is soot EVERYWHERE! Luckily, our homeowners insurance covers the remediation aspect of the cleanup, and we have had a team of “disaster reparation specialists” here, going on three days today. They are cleaning everything from ceiling to floor, every nook, cranny, nick-nack, dish, spoon, pot, pan, etc. needs to be cleaned by hand. Additionally, a textile specialist has been here, and has taken all clothing, bedding, drapery, rugs, table linens, and what-have-you from every drawer, closet, shelf, pantry … and had them professionally cleaned. To top it off, we’re living in the house at the same time, and let me tell you, it’s no picnic, as I’m sure you can imagine.

Now, the bright side:
Luckily, by the grace of God, no one was injured by this. We could easily have all been poisoned by CO, and never woken up. I do thank God for this.
And most importantly, when the cleaning crews are out of here, my house will be cleaner than it has EVER BEEN BEFORE ! Talk about your “forced spring cleaning” (even though it’s still 19 degrees F outside). We’ll also have the opportunity to purge a bit – you know - get rid of stuff we should have gotten rid of long ago. I think this was God’s way of telling to get off our a** and finally clean up this dump!

2

Good grief! Glad everyone’s fine.
I hope you’re getting some Carbon Monoxide detectors today.

P.S., it seems like 2007 is shaping up to be a real crapfest.
Or is that just me?

3

You know what really scares me is the whole “Bad things happen in threes” aphorism. I’m thinking of driving my car into a wall just to get it over with.

4

Yikes. Though, they never said it had to be 3 equally bad things.
Maybe the kid at Wendy’s will just shortchange you or something.

…Much like Homer Simpson’s version of The Monkey’s Paw.
The first 2 wishes result in global disaster, so Homer’s 3rd
wish is for a “non-zombie” turkey sandwich. It was a little dry.
Said Homer, “What demon from the depths of hell created thee!”

5

Cripes! So glad you are all OK, and I need the same level of cleaning but don’t think I’ll wait for that incentive!! :astonished:

6

Yeah, in general people don’t understand that “smoke damage” is real, and nasty, and dangerous, and needs to be cleared up. Glad to hear you are okay, though.

7

I went through similar a couple of times in the past. The last one was with a wood-burning space heater. Despite all the professional cleaning, we never could get rid of the smell. I hope you have better success with this.

As for your 3x bad luck … hmmm … now, where did I put that tornado button …

djm

8

I’m so sorry Fyff. That really is crappy.

9

This may be an old wive’s tale, but I have heard that playing a few of the highest notes on the fife can clean a home of just about any kind of impurity, even oil smoke. On a more practical note, however, I’m sorry that this sooty mess happened to you. I hope that the cleanup is completely successful.

10

Yeah, a real shame and nuisance. I guess you can’t consider it “patina” can you? Glad you’re all well!

11

Ick. I worked for awhile for a company that cleaned up that sort of soot damage. Done properly you can get rid of the smell. Make sure they inspect stuff like beds and sofas – it sounds as though the smoke may have been around long enough to penetrate beyond where it can be cleaned out of stuffing. If that happens, when the hot humid days of summer come around, you’ll notice it.

Best of luck.

12

my parents’ house was heated with oil, and we had a “back blow” happen. Soot everywhere. I do NOT envy you.

13

Oh, that thing about bad stuff happening in three’s is just a story put out by people who are annoyed at the people who have gotten their two bad things over with. Bad things happen in two’s, so you are done.

I cannot even imagine such a mess. But that CO business is even more worrisome. Are there some consultants that can advise you what to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again? The CO monitors sound like a good idea and we have those, but I hope that something can be done so you don’t have to go through all this again.

I’m really starting to think you should write a novel. You are collecting a lot of good material this year.

14

Eeew. Don’t come and sit on my couch, not in those pants.
And I bet it’s still black under your fingernails or in any other creases you care to inspect. The stuff is impossible! Our first ancient oil stove in the cabin had an “event” we dealt with for weeks afterward.

Fyffer, it is a treat to hear someone dealing with something so nasty in such a positive way. Hats off to you! (Or better, keep it on, your hair will stay cleaner.)

Jennie

15

Yikes, Fyffer! You can’t seem to catch a break! I’m glad that all is well, despite the sooty mess, and i hope they can get it cleaned up quickly.

16

I know all too well what you’re dealing with. Our first house had an oil furnace in a central closet-like space and it use to blow this stuff out at least once a year. Trying to wipe it off just makes a big black smear and yes it is everywhere. It never occured to me to get the insurance company involved.Duh. I just would spend forever cleaning the house.

When we were able to put in a new heating system I begged and was finally allowed to be the one to rip that contraption out of our house. It was such a good feeling to take a crowbar and destroy the thing. :smiling_imp: