Post by Telemachus on Jul 15, 2019 9:15:44 GMT
We had a bad night last night! Went to bed at around midnight. At 1:30 Jeff woke up, which woke me up. We could smell something, a bit like lit newspaper. No visible smoke. Not that strong. Jeff popped his head out of the hatch to see if it was coming from outside. It wasn’t, which was worrying. As he passed the wardrobe/cupboard he paused as it was stronger. He opened the top cupboard and jumped back as pungent smoke came out. Immediately my eyes were stinging although there was not a lot of visible smoke. Some clothes in the top cupboard were smouldering. That is where Jeff keeps his clothes that are not in the hanging part of the wardrobe. Back doors and hatch were hastily opened. We were naked and there was some Orthodox Jews feeding the swans nearby (at 1:30 am!), but tough!
I went to pull the clothes out and they were glowing red hot/smouldering but no flames. Managed to get them outside, where Jeff dunked them in the canal. A hoodie and a couple of T shirts.
At this point I’ll have to make an admission, basically this was my fault. When we were designing the overhead lighting I thought why not have a ceiling light in the cupboard as well. An obvious issue is that the light gets left on unnoticed when the cupboard doors are closed. You may know we have an electronic dc control system called Empirbus and this allows stuff to be programmed. The light is therefore turned on by one press of a button. A second press of the button turns it off. But it will only stay on for 5 mins, then it automatically turns off.
On the lighting switch panel on the wall opposite the cupboard there are 4 buttons, one for the engine room lights, next one for the cupboard light, next 2 for the 2 sets of overhead bedroom lights. It is quite easy to press the cupboard one by accident, but no matter, it goes off after 5 mins.
The boat was built in 2011 just at the dawn of mainstream LED lighting and so it came with 10w halogen lights. Most of these I have replaced with LEDs but not the ones rarely used such as the cupboard light. Also the cupboard was quite big and Jeff used to complaint that it was difficult to keep his clothes organised. I therefore built a shelf 1/2 way up. So clearly clothes were stuffed in the right up to the light. The hoodie (cheapo thing from Primark) at the top. Which was perhaps a bit foolish but I’m the practical one, not Jeff. I built that trap for him.
Obviously the heat from the light set fire to the clothes.
After I pulled the burning clothes out I presumed the light was on so pressed the button. The light came on (dimly, due to being covered in thick black soot). So it wasn’t on moments before.
I suppose it is possible that the light came on randomly, but we have the same system for the bathroom fan, it comes on when the shower light is turned on. When the shower light is turned off, the fan stays on for 5 mins. The fan has never come on when it shouldn’t nor failed to go off when it should.
So I am wondering if being on for 5 mins around midnight when someone pressed the wrong button, was enough to heat the clothes to just barely smouldering and then over the next 1.5 hours it took hold. Several layers of the folded hoodie were completely burnt through. The ceiling around the light is black.
At this point you are all going to be thinking “what an f-ing idiot” to have a halogen light in a clothes cupboard. I have to agree with you! Although it has been OK for the past 8 years.
We have a smoke alarm in the kitchen / start of the bathroom corridor. Based on the presumption that a fire will start in the kitchen or saloon (with coal stove). Not in this case and the alarm didn’t sound until Jeff opened the cupboard. We will get more smoke alarms!
All very scary. Amazing how eyes and throat were stinging with barely any visible smoke. What if we had been out at the time? Doesn’t bear thinking about.
We had to be up at 7 to get the Pomona lock opening at 8 so a troubled night’s sleep after that. I woke up at 3 when a nearby burglar alarm went off!
I went to pull the clothes out and they were glowing red hot/smouldering but no flames. Managed to get them outside, where Jeff dunked them in the canal. A hoodie and a couple of T shirts.
At this point I’ll have to make an admission, basically this was my fault. When we were designing the overhead lighting I thought why not have a ceiling light in the cupboard as well. An obvious issue is that the light gets left on unnoticed when the cupboard doors are closed. You may know we have an electronic dc control system called Empirbus and this allows stuff to be programmed. The light is therefore turned on by one press of a button. A second press of the button turns it off. But it will only stay on for 5 mins, then it automatically turns off.
On the lighting switch panel on the wall opposite the cupboard there are 4 buttons, one for the engine room lights, next one for the cupboard light, next 2 for the 2 sets of overhead bedroom lights. It is quite easy to press the cupboard one by accident, but no matter, it goes off after 5 mins.
The boat was built in 2011 just at the dawn of mainstream LED lighting and so it came with 10w halogen lights. Most of these I have replaced with LEDs but not the ones rarely used such as the cupboard light. Also the cupboard was quite big and Jeff used to complaint that it was difficult to keep his clothes organised. I therefore built a shelf 1/2 way up. So clearly clothes were stuffed in the right up to the light. The hoodie (cheapo thing from Primark) at the top. Which was perhaps a bit foolish but I’m the practical one, not Jeff. I built that trap for him.
Obviously the heat from the light set fire to the clothes.
After I pulled the burning clothes out I presumed the light was on so pressed the button. The light came on (dimly, due to being covered in thick black soot). So it wasn’t on moments before.
I suppose it is possible that the light came on randomly, but we have the same system for the bathroom fan, it comes on when the shower light is turned on. When the shower light is turned off, the fan stays on for 5 mins. The fan has never come on when it shouldn’t nor failed to go off when it should.
So I am wondering if being on for 5 mins around midnight when someone pressed the wrong button, was enough to heat the clothes to just barely smouldering and then over the next 1.5 hours it took hold. Several layers of the folded hoodie were completely burnt through. The ceiling around the light is black.
At this point you are all going to be thinking “what an f-ing idiot” to have a halogen light in a clothes cupboard. I have to agree with you! Although it has been OK for the past 8 years.
We have a smoke alarm in the kitchen / start of the bathroom corridor. Based on the presumption that a fire will start in the kitchen or saloon (with coal stove). Not in this case and the alarm didn’t sound until Jeff opened the cupboard. We will get more smoke alarms!
All very scary. Amazing how eyes and throat were stinging with barely any visible smoke. What if we had been out at the time? Doesn’t bear thinking about.
We had to be up at 7 to get the Pomona lock opening at 8 so a troubled night’s sleep after that. I woke up at 3 when a nearby burglar alarm went off!
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