Tuesday morning between 6 and 6.30 we had one of these „once-in-a-lifetime-experiences“ you prefer never to have to go through. We were woken up by the crackling noise of fire in our attic but at that time we did not realise what that noise was and where it came from, sounded more like someone letting fire crackers off outside. The fire burned the electrical cables which then caused a short cut so suddenly the alarm clock and all other noises were out. The first thing we did was to jump out of bed and run downstairs and see what caused the noise. Everthing was o.k. but after checking the safety box with fuses and them all been thrown out we checked the rest of the house and found the attic in complete thick smoke with two main fire spots and several small ones which just had started.
We managed to stop the open flames by ourself but needed the help of the fire brigade to also stop the hidden fires carrying on burning and smoldering under the floorboards, the floor was cut open with a chain saw and the ceiling cut open too. Nobody was harmed physically just a little smoke inhilation and the damage done to our house is repairable. It looked really promising before the fire, we hope it will be nice again when we repair it and that the insurance will pay out for the damage.
The fire was caused by a bag full of wood dust which we had left standing upstairs after sanding down the wooden floor the evening before. The floor was the last thing for us to finish before wallpapering and then we hoped we can finally move into it. The dust in the bag must have compressed over night and the energy produced caused self-ignition. Basically the bag started smoldering and then exploded and threw balls of burning wood dust through the whole room and started small fires on several other spots. Where the bag stood there was no floor anymore only a hole and the ceiling above the main fire spot was also burning.
We were very lucky and what saved our house was that we checked quite immediately after the main burst out AND that we have fire extinguishers, one of them was standing on the bottom of the stairs going up into the attic and could be fetch within seconds after finding the fire.
Now a couple of days later we realise how lucky we were with it all, the fire workers told us already we were lucky but then you cannot take it fully in.
Importance of fire extinguishers
Since it happened of course we have spoken to family and friends and to our big surprise only a few have fire extinguishers in their houses or flats. Without the fire extinguisher we would not have had a chance up there. It is also important to know the different types, ours was a powder one, a foam or water based one would have probably caused under our circumstances an additional electrical fire.
Importance of fire resistent insulation
Do not save money when you buy material for insulation, it really can pay out big time to invest in the good stuff and pay a little more. The pearl/bead-like insulation we chose saved the supporting beams and the wooden ceiling below it to catch fire, only the centimeter of free space above the floor insulation started burning/smoldering, everything underneath the insulation line was not touched.
+Unfortunately we had no smoke alarm upstairs, we have them all over the house but there it was not installed yet as the room was not ready. We are sure had we had a smoke alarm already somewhere up there it would have warned us hours earlier, as the smoldering must have gone on quite a while and must have cause A LOT of smoke before the main explosing happened. So this is what will go up immediately, too.
It has been something else. The new floor had caused us a lot of problems in the last four weeks and we hoped Monday evening we had them all solved only to wake up in the morning with another desaster with it topping it all.
So… if you do not have them, get out and buy smoke alarms and at least one fire extinguisher for each floor of your flat or house!!!
Colin and Brigitte
You really do need a dog 
