Came home from a weekend away once. The back up battery on the sump was sounding, so I went down to the utility room straight away.

■■■■■■■ furnace was on fire. Of course at first glance I thought there must have been a gas leak and the whole thing was gonna blow up! But then I saw it was the electrical to and from the thermostats/servos. No idea how they caught fire, but the plastic covering was really making tall flames that lapped on the joists.

Ran upstairs to get the extinguisher while screaming ‘call 911!’ like a lunatic.

Back down and dowsed it out.

It really was only two wires, but the size of the flame was incredible.

So lucky that:

  • We didn’t come home a minute later than we did
  • The sump battery alarm was going off
  • The extinguisher had a good charge

We have like two extinguishers in every room now…

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