Blog Note

Okay. Bit of a SNAFU today. My home inspection was scheduled for "Wednesday July 2." My agent read that as "July 2"; the inspector read it as "Wednesday."

It was today. Not tomorrow. I was not ready.

I did get to meet my home buyers—a very nice young couple with an adorable 6-month-old son (not in attendance, but I saw phone snaps). My dogs distinguished themselves by barking incessantly from the bedroom where I had them quarantined. They'd been scheduled to go to Camp Bow Wow tomorrow, all day. But everyone extemporized, everyone was friendly, and all went well.

Of course after a while we were all standing around telling stories, talking about stereos, laughing, and listening to jazz...it's really a wonder I ever get any work done, when you come to think of it.

The home inspector was an interesting guy. He explained that the floors of attached garages are designed to slope away from the house, so spilled oil and gasoline will flow away from the house rather than toward it; that all attached garages are built with a concrete step up into the house for the same reason; and that people shouldn't install screen doors between the house and the garage, because the main door is always a fire door and it should always be closed when you're not actually going through it.

The question this raised in my mind was, how often do fires actually start in attached garages? That is, are cars in attached garages really fire hazards? I can believe they might have been in 1950.

I couldn't find the relevant statistic, but the U.S. Fire Administration, an entity of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency, says that the leading cause of residential fires, at 48.7%, is cooking, with the second leading cause, heating, coming in at 12.1%.

By that measure, it would seem odd that we cordon off our automobiles in separate, walled-off, fire-retardant rooms of the house, whereas we now put our kitchens in our living rooms. Shouldn't we do the opposite?

But then it occurred to me that maybe cooking is the leading cause of residential fires because we put our kitchens in our living rooms rather than behind fire-safe walls.

But then my brain started to hurt. I'm tired. To tell you the truth, I've been exhausted ever since the house sold. The uncertainty was more of a strain than I was aware of.

Real posts soon.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2015 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Michael Perini: "If you look at colonial architecture, the kitchens were often built as almost separate rooms just for that reason. Although this link suggests otherwise. There has always been a tradition of outdoor ovens, which are popular even today."

Mike replies: I also read a theory recently that the popularity of kitchens in the living area is partly responsible for our worsening eating habits in the obesity epidemic. I believe I saw it browsing Michael Pollan's new book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, although I wouldn't swear to that.

Benjamin Marks: "I am a volunteer firefighter and helped fight a garage fire this past winter. It was caused, not by the cars in the garage, but as so many fires around here are caused: by improper storage of ashes/coals from a wood stove. Garage fires are nasty; folks store all sorts of stuff in garages that you wouldn't want to breathe the smoke of (ugh...grammar...'the smoke of which you would not want to breathe?'...equally awkward).

"So garage fire = bad. Today's TOP public safety announcement: TOPpers, please store your wood stove ashes in a metal container with a lid that closes tightly, and do not store that container near a combustible surface. /rant off."

Ann: "In the 1892 house I lived in, he kitchen was attached to the back of the house, but didn't have the rest of the house around it. The idea of the day was that if the kitchen burned down, then only the kitchen would burn. The rest of the house could be saved.

"In the 1920s house I live in now, the kitchen is integrated into the house, but the garage is detached, of course. The honest truth is that with modern construction, there are very few fires of any sort anymore. but a good reason to keep the door to the garage closed is not because of fire, but because of carbon monoxide. I've heard anecdotal tales of people getting low level CO poisoning from houses that have poorly air sealed garages. An open door would negate any protection from that."

Mike replies: I agree. I would not buy a house with a bedroom built directly above the garage. Too many horror stories.

The house I did buy, though, has a very nice kitchen that takes up more of the ground floor than anything else. I have a rule with myself: never step away when the stove is on. I'm too absent-minded, and several times when I left the kitchen unattended I completely forgot what I'd been doing there. I'm just the type of person who would burn down his own house through inattention, so I have to be careful.

If anyone reading this has a bedroom above a garage, I'd encourage you to get it inspected to make sure you have the proper gas barriers in place, as well as working carbon monoxide detectors.

Tom Kwas: "I can tell you one thing about my moving to Indianapolis last year: there are fires every where and all the time compared to Wisconsin! And scary for me: apartment fires!

"I ran into a fireman last time I was in Wisconsin that told me they occasionally train in Indianapolis because the departments there 'roll out' on a fire weekly, and of the size they might get once every couple of months from where he was in Wisconsin. Reasons why? Poor Indianapolis unlicensed construction, bad code monitoring. Really 'meh' attitudes (my apartment complex was built in the late '80s and it has no insulation, as well as bottom dollar off-brand HVAC. And by the way, recycling here is just a 'suggestion').

"I used to bridle against the strict Germanic permitting and spot checks in Wisconsin, but when you see the other side of the coin, it doesn't seem so bad....

"I've been in two studio fires over my career (because they were always in run-down, questionable buildings). Luckily I was only working there, and they weren't my studios. Fire is my biggest fear...."

Mike replies: A blog post about photographers who've lost their archives in fires would be hard to research but very interesting. Starting with Carleton Watkins who lost most of his work in the San Francisco fire and ending perhaps with Jacques Lowe whose archive of the Kennedy years was lost in the basement of the World Trade Center.

Henning: "A couple of notes from an architect and building code consultant (Canada, but since the building code deals with safety, the same items apply). Carbon monoxide sinks, so building a bedroom above a garage doesn't make a difference in that regard. Here, a door connecting a garage to a house has to be fire rated, installed in a fire rated door with weatherstripping to seal it better, and has to have a closer. A 2" door sill and slope away from the door is as much for the carbon monoxide (which then flows away from the door) as for liquids.

"Real life safety with respect to fires comes only from a decent fire sprinkler system. Statistics have shown that if a fire sprinkler system is installed and functioning, lives are not lost. Yes, they can go off inadvertently and cause extensive water damage, but that is quite rare in practice and as far as I'm concerned, life safety triumphs. I'm happy that Vancouver has had mandatory sprinklering for all residential units for the last 20 years, and this is spreading across the country."

Tech. Ed. Ctein comments: Carbon DI-oxide is denser than air. Carbon MON-oxide is essentially the same density, as close as doesn't matter. Convection and thermal differences will control where CO goes, not density.

A typical garage fire is vastly more dangerous than a typical kitchen fire because the garage is unmonitored and uninhabited (not to mention gasoline, etc). By the time you are likely to become aware that your garage is on fire, it's ON FIRE! Kitchen fires are much more likely to be detected early.

Mike adds: Yeah, the idea of involvement is probably important. You don't want a fire to have a chance to get going. (We all know how hard it can be to start a fireplace fire but how hot it gets—and how easy it is to get a new log burning—once it's "all involved" and blazing.)

I once witnessed a mattress fire in an apartment across the street from my Georgetown, D.C., apartment. I could actually see flames through their window. The fire department got there fast and swarmed the place. I was amazed at how fast they all moved. Before I knew it they were inside, outside, and on the roof. One of the firemen later told me (of course I had to go ask questions) that the more quickly they catch a fire, the easier it is to put out and the less damage it does. So they move as fast as they can, even for—perhaps especially for—small fires.

Asher Miller: "My uncle's house had a fire last year. It started in the garage with the trickle charger plugged into his car. We think the hood was resting on the charger leads, and started arc-welding themselves to the hood of the car. He tried beating the flames back with a fire extinguisher, failed, and escaped seconds before the garage door cables melted and the door slammed shut behind him. I don't know what the insurance claim was, but they were lucky they were home to smell the ole and call 911, and they were lucky his ammunition didn't cook off, too. (He's a hunter, and his shop is just off the garage.) If my aunt hadn't smelled the smoke wafting up into the kitchen, they would have lost everything. As it was, it was a nasty fire, and they were out of their house for the better part of a year.

"Garage fires happen, and they are no joke."

Comments

[toto]

The earliest July 2 to fall on a Wednesday isn't until 2025!

[nicholas von staden]

That not I was told...all garages must be lower and with vents to let out carbon monoxide to escape from a car exhaust and not come into the home.

[nicholas von staden]

but I live in Florida and people leave their cars running in the garage all the time ......some on purpose.

[Steve Rosenblum]

I suspect: People keep lawn mowers, snow blowers and the requisite gasoline cans in their garages. Also, oil, solvents, paint thinner, etc.. Hence, the fire danger.

[Jack]

Mike,
The leading cause of damage in homes is water not fire by a ten to one ratio. Skip the fire extinguishers and invest in a automatic water cut off sensor in your next house. This advice comes from a man who was informed by a friend in Phoenix who installed such a sensor only after he had $250,000 worth of water damage from a broken pipe in the desert of Phoenix.

I thought that was a smart idea but I had never had a busted pipe in my house in WI in 23 years. Three days later I was informed that my house in WI had busted pipes from the freeze of February. The cost to repair was huge.

OK, fire can kill, but water ruins more houses.

http://www.amazon.com/WaterCop-Automatic-Water-Valve-Sensors/dp/B00035I4T6/ref=sr_1_24?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1435806324&sr=1-24&keywords=water+shutoff+valve+automatic

[Doug Chadwick]

A nice drive in the country with my girlfriend. I drive into the garage, backed in. Shut the engine off. It's a Lotus Elan, 1970 model. Strong smell of vaporized gasoline, lots of it. I say to her, open your door, get out, walk out of the garage, and DO NOT CLOSE YOUR CAR DOOR. Raw gasoline is spilling onto the hot exhaust. We are in a cloud of it. She gets about 20 feet out and stops, I say keep going. Not breathing much. After a bit I open my door and leave.

The car has a pretty serious fire system, an 8 pound bottle of Halon inert gas fire extinguisher in the trunk with nozzles in the trunk, interior and under the hood, but none under the car where the problem is. I can set this off with a handle under the dash, but it's not going to help.

But with no spark, we have no problem. Fire in the garage? Not that day, but it could happen.

[JG]

Cars catching fire in garages happens all the time, actually: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/San-Diego-North-Park-Drift-Car-Garage-Fire-310653631.html

That said, a lot of building code requirements are not the result of a carefully considered cost-benefit analysis, so looking for the logic behind them is often a fruitless exercise.

For example, when I was remodeling my house a few years back, I learned that the local building code required that every room in the house have a window and even included a formula to determine the minimum amount of window area necessary per square foot of room size.

I asked the inspector if this meant I would have to install a window in a photo darkroom and he said that it did. (rolls eyes)

[Stan B.]

I remember becoming leery of attached garages after reading how a guy decided to kill himself one night with his car running in the garage- the carbon monoxide managed to seep into the adjoining bedrooms and kill the rest of his family.

[Chuck Albertson]

Well, a lot of fires are started by people deep-frying turkeys in giant vats of peanut oil. For some reason, they insist on doing that in garages/carports.

[Dierk]

The fire door need not necessarily keep hazards out of the house but out of your garage [which may also be used as a storage room for highly combustible items or as a workshop].

[Bill Tyler]

The real date must have been in 2025, the next year in which July 2 is a Wednesday. Around here, we'd think of that as an unusually lengthy escrow.

[Ross]

Any thoughts on potential buyers discovering basement (or some other useful area) devoted to a wet darkroom?

[Robert Roaldi]

Garage fire doors work.

[Steven Major]

It appears your home was sold Before the inspection? Most home sales are predicated on the inspection. What up?
A reminder: What your in the middle of is historically the most stress producing event in most peoples lives. Easy does it.

[Chris Crowe]

Perhaps the fire door is to protect the car!

[Tim Bradshaw]

I suspect that the car/fire thing is complicated: cars probably have not ever caught on fire randomly very often, but they do emit petrol fumes and carbon monoxide, neither of which are very good for you and the first of which can be explosive in confined spaces.

But it is probably at least a bit historical.

[Clive Tonge]

Hi Mike,
with the screen door i think that more than the chance of fires, is the danger posed by gases from gasoline and exhaust fumes.

It is a bit like the no smoking rules around gas pumps. A lit cigarette isn't actually hot enough to ignite gasoline, but a lighter or match is. Safer to say no smoking than to say no matches.

Regards Clive

[Kodachromeguy]

Kitchen in the living room. That is the doofy "open floor plan" stuff from the Home & Garden set, who think that the entire household should smell the cooking odors and where the entire household should eventually have a film of cooking oil and debris over every surface. Possibly the knick-knacks placed on every shelf and cabinet absorb the oil. Sigh, another trend....

[Dogman]

For those who could afford it, kitchens in the southern USA used to be in separate buildings. That was before air conditioning and climate control systems. For those who had less resources, kitchens were usually located at one end of the house, away from sleeping and daily activity areas. Again, air conditioning changed all that and now we have cooking areas right in the middle of things.

It's kind of interesting how air conditioning changed so many things in the South. The school I attended as a child was in a very old building with no AC. It had high ceilings and lots of windows that opened with transoms over the doorways to allow excellent air circulation. I don't recall anyone being uncomfortable in those classrooms, even at the end of the school term when the temperature and humidity went up significantly. Later the school was expanded with a more modern addition for the upper grades. Low ceilings with less air circulation in the classrooms made for an uncomfortable learning environment. Teachers brought fans from home to try and keep things bearable but students still sweated during those warmer months. These modern building designs led to the necessity of air conditioning. Air conditioning then led to longer school terms--kids stayed in school until the middle of June and returned to class in August whereas previously schools closed in May and didn't resume until mid or late September.

[Bryce Lee]

Actually here in Southern Ontario fire doors are required between garages and homes and between garages, ie if two garages are side by side. Given all the electronic gizmos of vehicles these days, most vehicles have constant power trickling somewhere and it is so darn easy for something to suddenly flame.
No screen doors on submarines either or so I am told.

[David Elesh]

Mike,

One of the reasons I enjoy reading the blog is your curiosity about things that few people notice but should. The everyday ironies of our lives is one of those things.

[Roger Bradbury]

Here in the UK, the 2012-13 stats (probably the latest available) say that 52% of fires are caused by 'Cooking appliances'. Same difference, really. A gas or electric hob is not controlled by the temperature of whatever it is heating, so for example shallow or deep fat pans can be heated until they self combust, given a little inattention.

There are similar rules here for fire doors and a step up, with attached garages. If I remember correctly, inspection pits here are required to have explosion proof lighting; petrol vapour can gather in the pit. One spark is all it takes.

I'm no relation to the Bradbury garage equipment company, by the way.

[Ed Kirkpatrick]

Back in the day they used to have the kitchen in a separate building behind the house for just that reason: they caught fire, a lot. I wonder when we decided it was better the other way around.

[Hélcio J. Tagliolatto]

I wonder how often do fires actually start in attached darkrooms

[Hudson]

I was told by a Sheriff's Deputy who had responded to several carbon monoxide deaths in the garages over the years.

1. get into car.
2. open garage door.
3. start car.
4. immediately back car out of garage.
5. fasten seat belt and fix your make up.

He related one case where it appeared that the car was started with the door closed and the driver started to make a addition to the grocery list, and didn't finish.

2 liters @ 2000 rpm = lots of exhaust.

-Hudson

[Roger Overall]

A friend lost his entire archive and all his equipment when a plane crashed on the Bijlmer neighbourhood in Amsterdam in 1992. He was very lucky. Others lost so much more.

[Malcolm Leader]

Mike, If you've never been to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, put it on your bucket list. Not only is it magnificent with a myriad of innovations by Mr. Jefferson, the kitchen area is away from, although connected to, the main building. A very clever dumbwaiter system designed by Mr. Jefferson took freshly cooked items directly to the dining room. The area for potential fires is all built of stone. A common sense approach. Believe me, go, you won't regret the experience.

[Sal Santamaura]

Commenter Ann wrote: "...I've heard anecdotal tales of people getting low level CO poisoning from houses that have poorly air sealed garages..."

Mike replied: "I agree. I would not buy a house with a bedroom built directly above the garage. Too many horror stories...If anyone reading this has a bedroom above a garage, I'd encourage you to get it inspected to make sure you have the proper gas barriers in place, as well as working carbon monoxide detectors."

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=carbon%20monoxide%20detector&linkCode=ur2&tag=theonlinephot-20&url=search-alias%3Daps&linkId=FIY4AWNGIW2Q4UN7

A garages is not the only source of low level carbon monoxide. Heating appliances (boilers and furnaces), stoves and fireplaces are among the others. Unfortunately, the UL-listed detectors Mike linked to are specifically designed to provide absolutely no protection from it. They only react to extraordinarily high CO levels that are immediately life threatening. The UL standard was developed using input from first responders, who were mainly concerned with avoiding 'false alarm' calls. Consequently, the approved alarms are built to ignore CO until it exceeds ridiculously high thresholds of intensity and time.

Since many municipal codes now require one or more UL-approved CO detectors, I comply and suggest everyone else does too. However, in addition, I wouldn't be without a low-level CO detector. Here's the one in my home:

http://www.aeromedix.com/ultra-low-level-carbon-monoxide-detector-c-o-experts-2015-low-level-c-o-health/

It sits on my nightstand and gets replaced whenever its chemical detection element, which is time-limited, wears out. This is the least expensive insurance of any type that I purchase; it's well worth the cost.

[FK]

And on the other side of the planet near the Tibetan border, in a Monpa's home, the kitchen is bedroom, living room and loft all-in-one.

[Dan Wells]

Speaking of studio/darkroom fires, there was the one that cost Ansel Adams quite a bit of his early work. There is at least one famous image of Ansel's (Monolith, the Face of Half Dome?) where later prints, while having better tonality, are cropped a bit on top and don't have quite the same elegance of composition as early ones. The top 1/8" or 1/4" of the large negative(either 5x7, full plate or 8x10 - which I don't recall)was damaged in the fire, and there is a slight unwanted crop to avoid the damage in all prints from after the fire. I wonder if someone has now made a high quality digital reconstruction from an image of an early print? I'd imagine a master digital printmaker,ideally whomever is in charge of the present high quality reproductions could match the tonality of that bit of sky (I don't think there is anything else in it)to a scan of the negative for the rest of the print, producing new prints of Monolith as visualized for the first time in 80 years. Is this an acceptable or unacceptable use of digital retouching?