So my floor lamp just burst into flames

[MorningGlow]

That was fun. Helped the diet--I think I dropped a couple of pounds within a few seconds. :scared:

[MilesColtrane]

1. Damn those shoddy Made in America products!

(I kid. Like there IS any stuff made over here any more.)

[MorningGlow]

2. This one may have been--it's an antique

I'm going to get it repaired--it's too nice to toss out (even with the scorch marks).

[MilesColtrane]

3. Then I can blame the Chinese made electrical outlet it was plugged in to.

Don't confuse me with facts...I'm on a roll.

:hi:

[MorningGlow]

4. ROFL have at it!

:hi:

[RandomThoughts]

26. That is awesome LOL

Great comment :)

[Curmudgeoness]

5. Holy crap! So are you saying that I would be wise to stop using

all my antique lamps? That's ok, I guess I don't mind sitting in the dark. Now I am going to be worried, I just looked at one of the old wires. How did you put the flames out???? Electrical fire, I forget the rules.

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

7. Two things to remember with electrical fires.

First thing to do, if at all possible, is shut off the juice. Probably best just to flip the main circuit breaker rather than trying to isolate it (especially if your breakers aren't labeled very well)

Never use water on an electrical fire or you'll risk frying AND burning yourself. Class C fire extinguisher (dry C02 based) is best.

[tXr]

14. The Lord hath spoken!

Thank you, Jesus! :rofl:

[MorningGlow]

16. Only the ones with lousy wiring

;)

The post-mortem on this one is that a chunk of one of the "candle flame" bulb holders was missing and apparently had been for quite some time (we've had this lamp for five years with no problems).

The parts that caught fire were that one bulb holder (out of three plus a main central bulb) and the cardboard "candlestick" below the bulb. I unplugged the lamp and carried the whole thing outside. I was going to throw a damp kitchen towel over it (since it was unplugged) but it went out by itself. Kind of anti-climactic, really. :P

On edit: I think if I buy any more antique lamps that I'll get them checked out by my "lamp guy" (yep, I have one) before using them. You might want to get yours checked out if you're very worried or if you use them regularly.

[Curmudgeoness]

23. Glad it was anti-climactic. I think that this will get me to have someone

check all my wiring. And I have always wondered about the cardboard around the holders, never looked safe to me and I do have one light fixture with the cardboard. Shit. Good to hear it was such a minor event.

[snagglepuss]

31. Re-wiring a lamp is very very easy. You can buy kits in any hardware store.

If you don't feel comfortatble doing it then have it done. If a lamp goes up in flames and alights a curtain or drape you have only seconds to evacuate your house because fumes kill people most of the time, however fire can consume a room within several minutes.


Several months I doused a fire that was raging in my toaster oven - it was like a bonfire. The only reason I got it extinguished is that I have a plastic container under my sink filled with baking soda ( 2 boxes). If I had to hunt for two box of baking soda, my apartment would have gone up in flames. :(

[bluedigger]

6. Shouldn't you be putting it out, instead of posting about it?

(Well, that's what I thought, when I read your post...:rofl:)

[MorningGlow]

17. Dude! Enter the 21st century!

FIRST you post/tweet about an event, THEN you do something about it!
:rofl:

[bluedigger]

25. I remain roadkill on the infosuperhighway.

:rofl:

[SeattleGirl]

8. That happened with a table lamp I had.

Scared the bejesus out of me, but I got the fire put out before anything else caught fire.

[flvegan]

9. It must be Italian.

Fragile: (fra-gee-lay)

[grasswire]

12. a major prize! n/t

[MorningGlow]

18. Snerk

Almost time for that movie! :hi:

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. glad you are ok!

[MorningGlow]

19. Thanks!

Just freaked out! :hi:

[HEyHEY]

11. Better call that weird lady from Poltergeist

[MorningGlow]

20. 'Tis the season

:P

[kentauros]

27. No need to call anyone.

She is that weird lady from Poltergeist. Why do you think it caught fire at all? :P

:hi: MG!

[MorningGlow]

28. LOL

I beg your pardon; I happen to be quite a bit taller than a lawn gnome! :P

:hi: How you doin, K?

[petronius]

13. That's a really great feature! If the lamp fails, it bursts into flame so that you

still have light to see by. You don't get engineering like that from these cheap-ass modern manufacturers... :)

[MorningGlow]

21. Now THAT

is the true embodiment of "glass half full". I salute you, sir.

[HopeHoops]

15. I hate when they do that.

[MorningGlow]

22. Indeed

As my heavily accented Italian grandmother used to say, "Don-a do dat NO MO'!"

[gvstn]

24. You were lucky!

I had a lamp burst into flames and catch the floor to ceiling drapes. They went up completely in 1-2 minutes. I couldn't believe how fast it happened. The whole room was filled with smoke. If I hadn't had a fire extinguisher handy I would have just run from the house and dealt with the aftermath of a major fire.

It was terrifying. Especially, since I often left that lamp on for hours at a time when I went out of the house. Turned out to be just an older lamp with a frayed wire. I'll never think of house fires as things that only happen to other people. No disabling smoke detectors for me anymore.

Happy to hear you were so fortunate.

[MorningGlow]

29. Wow--scary!

Glad you were able to put out the fire!

I am very grateful that I was home. The lamp wasn't near anything; it was about 4 ft. away from the wall--one with just pictures on it, but one of them is my very valuable original theater "card"/poster for A Hard Day's Night!--separated from it by an old radio cabinet. It was just quietly flickering away while I moved the cabinet and unplugged it. :scared: If I hadn't been home, I'd assume that a short in the lamp would have tripped the breaker, but who knows, really? Mr. MG has done a lot of electrical upgrading, but it's an old house, and these suckers are quirky (to put it mildly.)

I hear you about it being terrifying. This little "poof" had me shaking in my shoes for about half an hour afterward.

[gvstn]

30. I don't think about it much but not quite over it yet.

Mine only happened this Spring so I'm still a bit jumpy. I always thought the breaker would trip and that would be it. I've had a few outlets that needed replacing after using a space heater or some other energy hog. I went to always plugging anything energy hungry into a powerstrip that would trip an internal breaker before the house breaker for safety. This was an older lamp with only a 27w florescent bulb. I never would have imagined it could be a possible problem. I think the wire was dried out and the cord insulation had cracked; the drapes were touching the outlet and caught the spark. I thought home furnishings had to be flame-retardant. All I can think of is that I had the drapes cleaned about a year before so maybe there was some chemical on them that helped them go up so fast?

I just heard a poof and then saw a small flame. By the time I got out of my chair in the same room, two feet worth of drape was on fire. By the time I could think enough to get the extinguisher the flames were charring the ceiling above the drapes. I've seen plenty of movies where people set fires with gasoline and it took longer than what I saw.

I can't read articles about house fires the same way anymore. When I see electrical fire as the cause I no longer assume the victim was doing something against common sense. 27w is practically a night-light wattage bulb. It has really shaken me and my thinking about electrical safety.

For now I leave the cat in the dark when I go out. :scared: