RIP House of Cards...

[bluesboy]

It burned up real fast

[Carey]

Worked with the Protection Dept of UL, Inc. while they were doing the CPSC "white house" tests... House fires can & do spread very fast esp. since once most of us "see" them, they are usually well into their fire stage...as long as they have fuel & O2, the fire will grow to what some would feel is 'unusual'

Many here question why go by building codes & permits....Some of the UBC is written to minimize flame spread, written after years of testing how flames spread throughout a structure...Just think if you lived in the house next door to this inferno..

Thankfully for the owner & the county, the wind may have spared the next door home owner any damage, as with all of the back & forth over this structure, I am fairly sure that both the owner & county could have some legal questions to liability had the wind blown the flames toward their house!

[Kapohocat]

Things that make you say "WOW'.... ammunition and propane.

[Tink]

Definitely an accelerant was used. Unless it was filled with cardboard and paint thinner! Be a little difficult in that the alleged starting point was the third floor. Not much of that to sift thru for evidence, but it is there.

Are you a human being, or a human doing?

[kalakoa]

Does anyone else find it ironic that County somehow couldn't/wouldn't really enforce anything until the place burned to the ground?

Suddenly it's a criminal investigation for possible arson...

[deserteagle50ae]

Sad how people can be so happy to see another persons home burn down!!

[BI-Curious]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ColQ12EIRRg
(link provided by Bananahead)

I've never seen a structure burn down that quickly. Crazy.

[MarkP]

He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. The builder was essentially giving everyone the finger by creating and maintaining that junk pile. I'm not saying it was OK to burn the place down. I'm saying the builder is getting as much concern from the community as he gave.

I built a box for 10 golf cart batteries out of some old wooden doors, the 2" thick particle board kind. It didn't work and was taking up space, so I burned it. Those doors actually have a fire rating so it is not like they are kindling. In fact I have burned pieces of that material before and it takes a while to get them started. Anyway I turned the box over with a bunch of cardboard underneath in the hollow formed, with gaps along the edges and one end elevated. It burned ferociously. I surmise that it is due to the heat being trapped and radiated back and forth from the opposing burning surfaces. Frankly if you want to make a fire burn well, arrange for it to be house shaped. Also while researching living n steel arch structures I looked up some stuff about spray on foam. You can hold a torch to a chunk of it and when you remove the torch the stuff goes out, but there was an instance somewhere in the midwest in a potato storage structure that was a steel arch and insulated on the inside where welding ignited some of the material. It was a wide open space. All everyone had to do is look up, see, and run, which everyone did. Some people almost didn't make it out. The trapping of heat in a structure has an almost magical effect on the development of the fire.

[missydog1]

My son was wondering whether the structure had drywall. He mentioned the main practical function of drywall is that gypsum resists burning and increases the time it takes for a structure to burn. Anyone know?

It's very frightening to watch a neighbor house burn and wonder if it will spread. Happened to me, although that burning house was much closer to mine than this situation. Everything changes so fast from a normal day to one where you could lose your home.

I don't have much tolerance for fire traps after that experience.
Add to that a tenant storing flammable and explosive materials--just unbelievably irresponsible. Glad no one was hurt. Would be glad to have that danger gone if I lived there.

[Tink]

Heat does indeed make a fire spread faster. Where there's smoke, there's heat, where there's heat, there's fire. That's what I was taught to explain the dynamics of fire. The heat causes items to "gas off" or expell the "thinners" used to create it and raise the temperature of that item to its point of ignition. Just like the old book, "Fahrenheit 451", oddly enough named for at which point paper ignites. Even wood, when heated, expels the saps from the wood until it ignites from heat alone because the wood is so dried out. The rate that it burned, the color of the flame, the fact that the initial notice was probably a "red tag", or Code Enforcement stating that it is unsafe for occupancy, construction of a non permitted structure, and you have 30 days to submit plans for approval all come into play to call it suspicious, even though the County dropped the ball. It does have concern though, for in a tighter, denser jungle atmosphere you have a whole different ball game even with fire protection nearby, but is it a quick response time to keep it from spreading in the dry season?

Are you a human being, or a human doing?