[GSBN] Fwd: [SB-r-us] Attic fire, in a straw bale duplex.

[Frank Tettemer]

martin hammer wrote:
> I also read where someone put ammonia in solution in a bowl in a 
> closed mobile home for a day to eliminate smoke odors. Just don’t 
> inhabit the space while trying that.
>
Tim Owen-Kennedywrote:
>
> I would ask the insurance company if they would give the clients a 
> check for the full replacement and just do the repairs, that way they 
> could take a several months tropical vacation while the repairs are 
> being done and the house is being finished. This would go a long way 
> towards warding off the onset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 

Thanks, Martin and Tim, for your insights.
And all the rest of the caring and thoughtful suggestions from this 
whole group.

There has been a lot of cleaning up done, since my first posted 
query.And as winter is just around the corner, the main next step for 
that house is to cover the burn holes in the roof, and hunker down until 
Spring, as far as the straw and plaster re-building work goes. Most 
nights are dipping below freezing now, and it's not the time to rip the 
whole roof off, and replace the trusses. We will approach the bale 
reconstruction with greater courage in the Spring-time. And in the mean 
time, the few penetrations into the plaster/bale sandwich will/are being 
examined. These small penetrations are from fire-fighting activity, 
mostly, not from the actual fire, with clean looking straw mostly 
apparent where the plaster has been removed.

After time, the whole structure will have had a chance to air out. What 
remains to be done is scrubbing the black stains off the plaster. These 
stains are a result of many gallons of water having been pumped into the 
roof trusses. The water ran down the interior of the roof assembly, 
following the vapour barrier in the cathedral truss sections onto both 
rafter plate walls, and gushing the charcoal from the smoldered 
cellulose and the burnt spruce of the rafter trusses in a black "tea', 
running down all the interior surfaces of the plaster walls Most of the 
water fell upon the top surfaces of the plastered walls. Some of the 
water penetrated the bales, and probably soaked them quite a lot. some 
of the bales are probably unaffected.

But we will not put the whole building "to bed" for the winter, until 
we've removed enough of the wet and damaged material to prevent further 
deteriation and decay.

I've never heard of the ammonia solution cure. It reminds me of my 
teens, printing blueprints, while working as an apprenticed draftsman.
I never realized that we were clearing the drafting studio of all it's 
cigarette smoke simply by running the blueprint machine.

Frank

Frank Tettemer
Living Sol ~ Building and Design
www.livingsol.com
613 756 3884