Well I was hesitant to post this update as to a large sense of embarassment whether warranted or not, that I had somehow allowed my home to catch on fire. I mean no matter how much of an innocent or freakish type accident it was, it happened on my watch at my house and I am responsible.
Yesterday I succeeded in annealing the Craftsman hatchet head for the first time. The simple yet extremely effective makeshift forge I constructed did an outstanding job at heating steel. I posted update and pics yesterday as soon as I had achieved an annealed state. I had achieved something! I was excited! My forge was really freakin puttin out the heat and I knew that I would be hammerin a hawk head in no time. I took a minute and posted my update on INGO. I then left the forge area to go to the back of my house and retrieve a vice/anvil and some blacksmith leather gloves. Upon my returning to the site of my forge I happend to out of the corner of my eye see a small flame behind my gutter at side of porch. The opposite side of my porch from where I had my fire set up.
I dropped my anvil and I guess instinctually blew the small flame out. Then I noticed that smoke was coming up from behind my siding and quite a bit. I ran inside to assess the fire and found no flames in the interior structure. Ran back outside and in the one minute I was gone the smoke had already increased substantially. I ran and grabbed my hose which is 10 yards from where this fire had begun, FROZEN.
I made that call, that call that I cant believe I had to make, the one where I dial 911 and say "Hey my house is on fire and I need help." I knew it was a short matter of time before the fire behind my siding reached cieling joices and that this could go real real bad real real fast. I am going to say it seemed like it took Clarksville fire three minutes to arrive on scene. They got here quick, real quick and I know that in this particular situation that minutes is all it would have taken to potentially have been a devestating house fire. When they first grabbed the chainsaw off the truck I wanted to say, " Hey now, really, is that neccessary" but I quickly chose to stay out of their way and let them do what they do. Im not a fireman and I didnt want to pretend that I have any idea what is right or wrong course of action in a fire situation compared to one.
Well they got the fire out obviously. Im about to call my homeowners and see about getting an agent over here to discuss my options. I am extremely lucky that I happened to notice that flame when I did and that the Clarksville fire department was not playing games yesterday but taking care of business.
I guess that my need of power for shop vac blower caused me to probably set that forge up a little close to the house. The problem I thnk was that I had that blower going combined with relative distance to home and an ember got blown loose and found its one in a million bed of dead dry material and spark.
The fire issue caused me to forget about hatchet which was in forge with blower on
it melted to a mere fraction of its original glory
This is what stole my attention from my work on hawk
Where I think the perfect coal fragment met its perfect bed of highly flamable organic material. Also there was a gutter partially obscureing this gap in porch so it was not nearly as open as now.
Yes I am extremely lucky and I thank God that things were caught and managed so quickly. I am appreciative of the fact that it could have been much worse. Now having said that, This is my house, my families home, and its a pretty serious eyesore to say the least. I mean its not a broken window or just a cracked couple pieces of siding. Its a pretty big deal to me as it sits.
Thanks and God Bless INGO!!
Yesterday I succeeded in annealing the Craftsman hatchet head for the first time. The simple yet extremely effective makeshift forge I constructed did an outstanding job at heating steel. I posted update and pics yesterday as soon as I had achieved an annealed state. I had achieved something! I was excited! My forge was really freakin puttin out the heat and I knew that I would be hammerin a hawk head in no time. I took a minute and posted my update on INGO. I then left the forge area to go to the back of my house and retrieve a vice/anvil and some blacksmith leather gloves. Upon my returning to the site of my forge I happend to out of the corner of my eye see a small flame behind my gutter at side of porch. The opposite side of my porch from where I had my fire set up.
I dropped my anvil and I guess instinctually blew the small flame out. Then I noticed that smoke was coming up from behind my siding and quite a bit. I ran inside to assess the fire and found no flames in the interior structure. Ran back outside and in the one minute I was gone the smoke had already increased substantially. I ran and grabbed my hose which is 10 yards from where this fire had begun, FROZEN.
I made that call, that call that I cant believe I had to make, the one where I dial 911 and say "Hey my house is on fire and I need help." I knew it was a short matter of time before the fire behind my siding reached cieling joices and that this could go real real bad real real fast. I am going to say it seemed like it took Clarksville fire three minutes to arrive on scene. They got here quick, real quick and I know that in this particular situation that minutes is all it would have taken to potentially have been a devestating house fire. When they first grabbed the chainsaw off the truck I wanted to say, " Hey now, really, is that neccessary" but I quickly chose to stay out of their way and let them do what they do. Im not a fireman and I didnt want to pretend that I have any idea what is right or wrong course of action in a fire situation compared to one.
Well they got the fire out obviously. Im about to call my homeowners and see about getting an agent over here to discuss my options. I am extremely lucky that I happened to notice that flame when I did and that the Clarksville fire department was not playing games yesterday but taking care of business.
I guess that my need of power for shop vac blower caused me to probably set that forge up a little close to the house. The problem I thnk was that I had that blower going combined with relative distance to home and an ember got blown loose and found its one in a million bed of dead dry material and spark.
The fire issue caused me to forget about hatchet which was in forge with blower on
it melted to a mere fraction of its original glory
This is what stole my attention from my work on hawk
Where I think the perfect coal fragment met its perfect bed of highly flamable organic material. Also there was a gutter partially obscureing this gap in porch so it was not nearly as open as now.
Yes I am extremely lucky and I thank God that things were caught and managed so quickly. I am appreciative of the fact that it could have been much worse. Now having said that, This is my house, my families home, and its a pretty serious eyesore to say the least. I mean its not a broken window or just a cracked couple pieces of siding. Its a pretty big deal to me as it sits.
Thanks and God Bless INGO!!
