Author Topic: Photos of the fire at Matt's House (Read 1380 times)

Graybeard · « **on:** October 01, 2007, 07:59:20 AM »

quickdtoo · « **Reply #1 on:** October 01, 2007, 08:29:40 AM »

It's shocking to see just the smoke damage alone, what a shame for all the loss.

Thanks for hosting and posting all those pics, Bill.

Tim

NONYA · « **Reply #2 on:** October 01, 2007, 08:57:07 AM »

Did the Fire Dept have an explanation for the explosion that started the fire?

Graybeard · « **Reply #3 on:** October 01, 2007, 09:15:03 AM »

No. The explosion Matt and Heather both heard and felt has not been explained by anyone. We've looked at length and really cannot see where it occured or what might have caused it. There is a possibility something was under that back porch left by the owners of the house that just never got removed but we just flat don't know.

Matt said there was stuff the explosion had apparently blown out in the neighbor's yard across from the back of house on the other side of their chain link fence. Some other stuff was all the way over to the far side of the swimming pool. We're talking stuff too large to be wind blown so are assuming it was blast related.

Luckily he had just recently moved the gas grill from that porch to over at the pool area so it was far enough away from the fire to not allow that gas tank to explode which really would have been bad news.

The house apparently shook enough to knock a fan to the floor in the living room while the power was still on. You can see the stain on the carpet in the living room where the fan pulled enough smoke thru it before power failed to blacken the floor in front of where it had fallen to. This was at least three feet from where it had been sitting prior to the blast.

But at this time we have no clue what caused it or where exactly it took place other than around the back porch area.

OR-E-Gun Bill · « **Reply #4 on:** October 01, 2007, 09:43:24 AM »

From the looks of the first picture, the heat inside the kitchen must have been intense!

Bill, hope you don't mind that I resized the photo so others like myself with S-L-O-W dialup could see at least one of the pics.

Bill

DalesCarpentry · « **Reply #5 on:** October 01, 2007, 12:19:06 PM »

Wow!!!!! Now that is a lot of damage. Try to be strong and hold your head up. You never realize how much plastic is in your house until you see photos like these. Dale

eaglewatch · « **Reply #6 on:** October 02, 2007, 09:07:18 AM »

GB, curious; where did you take picture #16A. Was it in a hallway that connected to the kitchen area? Let Matt know that I would be glad to talk w/ them about the fire & look at some of the pictures. I looked @ the ones you posted. I could let you know which views would help; ie: overall's of the kitchen and 3 sided views of the rear of the house, etc.... He might could describe this explosion and we might could come up with a C&O on this thing. Also, if they haven't cleaned up the debris that blew into the neighbor's yard, it helps to map the debris from the furthest piece, to the left and right limits of the debris to get an idea of the direction back to the seat of the blast. I am willing to help them out for free just to give them a little piece of mind. I will look @ the photo's that you have posted a little closer and see what i can see. Tell them that they are welcome to e-mail me or call me anytime. Hal

Hal Lowder, CFI, CFEI, President
Certified Fire Investigator, Certified Fire & Explosion Investigator
Eagle Watch Investigations, Inc.
www.eaglewatchinvestigations.com
770-287-7694

Graybeard · « **Reply #7 on:** October 02, 2007, 09:22:46 AM »

I'm sure Matt will see this soon Hal but I'll call it to his attention. That photo you mention was taken in the hallway that leads from the large open area that was the kitchen and office space down to the living room. Going down the hall on the right you first came to the bath and then the laundry room was last on right before entering the living room.

The living room was an L shape that ran the full width of house on the end and then made the L turn and ran parallel to that hallway on the other side of that hall back to the stairs leading down to the front door and from there on down to the lower level where bedrooms were located.

With the burn pattern in mind it has to be from the right hand side of hallway and as best as I can recall is between kitchen and bath doorway.

If you look at 15a you'll see the area below the image at 16a. The thermostat was just right at the end of hall from kitchen area where the hallway wall began. The image you asked about is immediately above that melted thermostat of 15a.

30-06man · « **Reply #8 on:** October 02, 2007, 12:51:52 PM »

could have been many things. did he have a air compresser or anything under pressure around the house water tanks under the house that may have heated up and then just exploded?

Graybeard · « **Reply #9 on:** October 03, 2007, 12:34:30 AM »

Nope no air compressor and no tanks or any thing under pressure that he is aware of. We just have no clue what it was. But it was perhaps the defining thing that saved them as it caused him to go in search of an answer and caused him to become aware of the fire when he did. There was precious little time to get out at that point and even 2-3 minutes later it is unlikely he'd have been able to save our grandson Wyatt so whatever it was it is good that it happened it seems.

30-06man · « **Reply #10 on:** October 03, 2007, 11:32:28 AM »

yeah it was. god works in mysterious ways though

Author Topic: Photos of the fire at Matt's House (Read 1380 times)

Graybeard

Photos of the fire at Matt's House

quickdtoo

Re: Photos of the fire at Matt's House

NONYA

Re: Photos of the fire at Matt's House

Graybeard

Re: Photos of the fire at Matt's House

OR-E-Gun Bill

Re: Photos of the fire at Matt's House

DalesCarpentry

Re: Photos of the fire at Matt's House

eaglewatch

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Graybeard

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30-06man

Re: Photos of the fire at Matt's House

Graybeard

Re: Photos of the fire at Matt's House

30-06man

Re: Photos of the fire at Matt's House