Is Your Smoke Alarm Working?

Smoke Alarm Dead Zone

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.
~Robert Fulghum, author of "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten"

Last month two stories caught my eye regarding house fires at Christmas time.

The first took place in Montclair, NJ on Dec 21. A family of five heard fire crackling around 5pm and had 45 seconds to escape before the living room was engulfed in flame. Officials think it was the Christmas tree that ignited. All family members and the family's dog made it out without injury, although the family's jet black cat is missing. The house is a complete loss.

The other story had a sadder ending. A Christmas morning fire in a $1.7 million house in Stamford, CT killed the parents and children of the owner. The children's mother climbed out a window onto scaffolding and then a flat roof. She screamed for her children and told firefighters which bedrooms they were in. The fireman tried twice to enter the third floor of the house but the flames and heat were too intense. The mother's parents were staying for the holiday and also died in the fire. Officials think the cause was old fireplace embers that had been discarded near a first-floor entryway.

Last year, old embers discarded outside also caused a fire in a friend's house. The wife was at home when she heard someone knocking furiously at her door. She was afraid to answer it, thinking it some crazed person, but instead it was a passing driver who saw the house was on fire and wanted to warn anyone inside.

Bottom Line

Make sure you have working Smoke Alarms. Some sites recommend a monthly test and replacing the batteries twice a year when you set the clocks forward and back.

Also be sure to place them properly. Smoke rises so a detector placed low on a wall will alarm much too late. I also learned just last week that there is a space called the "dead zone" that you must avoid placing smoke alarms. The dead zone is everything within 4"-6" of the line where the wall and ceiling meet. (see image above) Air flow is restricted (dead air) along this edge and smoke won't reach the alarm quickly.

Consumer Warning: Beware of Hot Fireplace Glass

“He who wants to warm himself in old age must build a fireplace in his youth”
-German Proverb

Here's an interesting warning from Consumer Reports:

More than 2,000 children ages 5 and younger suffered burn injuries from gas fireplaces from 1999 through March 2009, according to research conducted by Carol Pollack-Nelson, Ph.D., an independent safety consultant.

The problem: the glass front on gas fireplaces gets blistering hot. Hot enough, according to Dr. Pollack-Nelson, to cause severe burns. Curiosity about fire leaves children particularly vulnerable. Industry standards for gas fireplaces allow the temperature of the ceramic glass to reach as high as 1,328°F. Tempered and annealed glass is allowed to reach 500°F and 446°F, respectively.

Bottom Line

We have a fireplace with a glass front at home. It never occurred to me that the glass could be 500°F. Ouch!
If you have young children keep them away from the fireplace, even if the glass door is closed.

Fire Starters

"Fire, I'll take you to learn
You're gonna burn, you're gonna burn"
-Fire, by Arthur Brown, #1 for one week in 1968

With warmer days and thoughts of camping, here's an idea for creating your own fire starter. See Instructables.com for more details, photos, and alternative ideas for fire starters.

1. Gather dryer lint, an empty paper egg carton, old candles or wax, dental floss, and scissors.

2. Cut or break the wax into small pieces for faster melting.

3. Melt the wax in a double boiler set-up using a disposable glass jar or can with an opening several inches across. The can or jar will get quite messy. Place the can or jar in boiling water (keep on eye on the water level - too much and the jar will float and perhaps tip over, too little and the pot goes dry) Once the wax is melted, turn down the heat to a simmer (or off) to avoid buring the wax.

4. Stuff the lint into the egg carton compartments. Pack as much as possible for longer burning.

5. Cut apart the egg carton compartments and fold the edges over to cover the top.

6. Tie the lint up inside the closed compartments with dental floss. Leave six or more inches at the end of the knot for you to hold in the next step.

7. Did each package into the wax. Cover completely and let the wax soak inside. Wait for no bubbles rise from the package. Set packages on paper towel to drain.

8. When done pour extra wax over the starters (for extra water proofing). Let the starters dry for an hour or two.

9. To use, light a corner with a match and enjoy for 15 minutes or so.

Bottom Line

The comments on the Instructables website include some variations like pouring the wax directly into the egg carton before cutting the compartments apart, using twine instead of dental floss so it acts as a wick, wrapping the lint in strips of newspaper instead, using a crock pot to melt wax, etc. This is a simple idea with many ways to be creative. Just don't melt the wax over direct heat - you could get a flash fire.

Christmas Fires

"Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall."-Larry Wilde

Here is an interesting story of holiday events gone wrong at wwwStraightDope.com

My assistant Una had an Uncle Bob, a manly man who felt throwing the Christmas tree away was a waste of good firewood. So he tossed it in the fireplace — gave him a nice warm glow.
Unfortunately what was glowing was the roof, presumably ignited by embers.
Fortunately the fire was small and anybody with a hose could have put it out. Unfortunately the hose was frozen solid and the fire department had trouble getting the nearest hydrant to work.
Fortunately the firefighters were able to throw a ladder up against the house and put out the fire with a chemical extinguisher. They then hacked off a small hunk of charred roof with axes, peered into the crawl space, and declared the fire out.
Unfortunately, having by now found an operational hydrant, the firemen declared they needed to hose down the roof "as policy," sending a torrent of water through the hole and collapsing the living room ceiling.
Really unfortunately, the house that all this happened in belonged not to Uncle Bob but his in-laws. Bob bought them an RV and matters were pronounced square, but it was a lesson he won't soon forget, and neither should you.

Bottom Line

I recommend reading the entire StraightDope story at Why is it dangerous to burn wrapping paper? And check out this classic of how quickly a dry christmas tree can go up in flame - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIQY7x6MwMg

Safely dispose of the tree when it begins dropping needles. Dried-out trees are highly flammable and should not be left in a house or garage, or placed against the house.

Ways to Keep Warm

"May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and a smooth road all the way to your door.” - Irish Blessing

I can cope with most things during a power outage. I'll light some candles (protected by hurricane lanterns or similar), eat cold tuna fish or peanut butter on crackers, and drink the bottled water in my basement. But one item has me worried. If it's winter and freezing cold outside, how will I stay warm? Here are a few ideas I've found.

1. If you wear your warmest coat/gloves/hat, your odds of freezing to death are quite low. You are more likely to die by fire, lack of oxygen or carbon monoxide poisoning trying to get warm with the wrong methods.
2. No coat? Then wear multiple layers of clothing. Stuff your outer layer with crumpled up newspaper.
3. Still cold? Don't try to warm the entire house. Heat just a single room on the "warm" side of the house, opposite the blowing wind. Don't pick a room with lots of single pane glass or thin walls. Close doors or hang drapes to isolate the room.
4. Still not warm enough? Pile all your blankets on the biggest bed and put the whole family underneath.
5. If you live on a farm, you can emulate the Holy Family on Christmas Eve and sleep near the animals. The barn may be the warmest place around.

Bottom Line

Safety First! Do not burn anything larger than a candle inside the house without proper ventilation. It seems silly to open windows when you're trying to get warm but see item #1. And don't forget you need to open TWO windows (one inch gap) on opposite sides of the room for air to circulate.

• Never burn BBQ charcoal inside the house. This is deadly.- If you have a propane grill instead, don't get clever and try to hook this up to your stove or natural gas heat. Special regulator valves are required for this to safely work.
• If you have a fireplace or are using a space heater, take turns staying awake so one person is always watching and maintaining the fire. Don't let it burn unattended while everyone sleeps. Keep a fire extinguisher nearby. Also recommended is a battery powered Carbon Monoxide (CO) detector.
• For your fireplace, you can make emergency logs from rolled up newspapers and magazines.
• Do not put a space heater on carpets, rugs or uneven surfaces. Keep it at least 3 feed away from bedding, drapes, furniture or anything that could burn.

No Power on Cold Winter Nights

“Three feet of ice does not result from one day of cold weather.” - Chinese Proverb

I really like the story, Ice storm tests mettle of Harvard residents by the Harvard Press. It goes into details about how families survived in mid-winter with 4+ days without power.

Sleeping arrangements were dictated by the location of a fireplace in the master bedroom. The whole family could fall asleep while that room was still warm, alongside their cats and a pair of birds. ... the room dipped to about 42 degrees on the coldest night.

Even the four cats slept under the bed covers.

The group showed ingenuity at mealtime too, boiling water in a sterno-powered fondue pot and powering the coffee grinder from the car adaptor. Ten-year-old Julia LeBlanc used her Girl Scout training and some aluminum foil to grill ham-and-cheese sandwiches in the fire, though she found that bagels tended to burn. Their frozen food was saved by the next-door neighbors, whose home had some power from a powerful generator. To power their plumbing, the LeBlanc family tapped the five-gallon drums of water that Peter had stashed in his basement some three years ago for just such emergencies. A healthy supply of firewood kept the fireplaces burning, and Peter LeBlanc even took the time to rent a log-splitter and share it with his neighbors.

Bottom Line

If you're prepared, a winter crisis can be a time of family bonding and adventure instead of hardship and suffering. “We’ve done very well!” said Elizabeth LeBlanc.

BBQ Basics

"I had a bag of fritos, they were Texas grilled fritos. These fritos had grill marks on them. They remind me of something, when we used to fire up the barbeque and throw down some fritos. I can still see my dad with the apron on, better flip that frito, dad, you know how I like mine.” - Mitch Hedberg (American Comedian, 1968-2005)

To a skilled grill master, there are as many ways to cook as there are spellings of Barbecue: Barbeque, Bar-B-Cue, Bar-B-Que, Bar-B-Q, BBQ, etc. For the beginner there are two basic ways to grill: directly or indirectly.

- With direct grilling the bottom layer of food is cooked over the heat/flames.
- True "BBQ" like smoked brisket and pulled pork uses indirect grilling

• Flames/coals cover only part of the grill.
• The food is NOT placed over the flame but rather on a "cold" part of the grate.
• The lid is closed and the food is slow cooked for 1 to 24 hours.

- If you grill over the flame with a closed lid you are using both direct and indirect heat. This is sometimes called dry smoking.

The whole art of grilling is knowing when to turn food and when things are cooked. Everything else is recipes and tricks.

• An average gas grill can reach 500 degrees in a matter of minutes. You can't throw the food on the grill and watch TV until the timer goes off. You must remain ever vigilant.
• Food will not cook faster at 500 degrees - it will burn! You must control the heat and allow time for food to cook at the center and not just char the edges.

Here are some useful temperatures:

• Hot = 450º and above. Use this to char foods quickly (searing it).
• Medium: 300º to 400º - after searing (optional), you finish foods by cooking at medium.
• Low 225º to 275º - used to slow cook and render fatty meats.

I don't trust the thermometer on my grill. It won't tell you about hot and cold spots. Try the hand test instead. Hold you hand 3 inches over the grill grate and count how many seconds you can hold it there (don't be macho, be honest).

• HOT = 1-2 seconds
• MEDIUM = 3-5 seconds
• LOW = 6-8 seconds

BOTTOM LINE
Outdoor cooking is an interactive sport - you vs the fire. Only with experience will you find the sweet spot where the heat cooks food quickly without burning.

The Art of Fire Starting

Buttercup: "That's the fire swamp! We'll never survive!"
Wesley: "Nonsense! You're only saying that because no one ever has.”
-The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Sometimes you just have to start a fire without matches. Perhaps your single engine plane goes down while you’re flying over the Alaskan wilderness or you lose your backpack in a tussle with a bear. Or it can be as undramatic as an extremely windy or wet day which render your matches virtually useless.

For detailed descriptions of the methods below check out 9 Ways To Start a Fire Without Matches

Friction Based Fire Making

• The Hand Drill fire method is not for the faint of heart. It’s probably the most difficult of all the non-match based methods. It requires bone dry wood, tireless hands, and gritty determination. It can take 15 minutes or more to build up enough heat.
• With the Fire Plough technique you cut a groove in a plank and rub a sturdy stick up and down the grove to create enough heat to ignite some tinder.
• The Bow Drill is a variant of the Hand Drill. The spindle stick is attached to a bow like device for faster and easier spinning. It is harder to set-up but easier to create the spark.
  Flint and Steel It’s always a good idea to carry around a good flint and steel set with you on a camping trip. They will work when wet.

Lens Methods

• On a sunny day you can focus the energy of the sun with a magnifying glass, eyeglasses, or binocular lenses. You can intensify the beam by adding some water to the lens. Angle the lens towards the sun in order to focus the beam into as small an area as possible. Put your tinder nest under this hot spot to ignite.
  Note: reading lens or far sighted eye glasses will work. Near sighted lens won't focus light in a point.
• You can create emergency lenses from a water filled balloon or condom. Keep the size small so you can manipulate the water lens to be as round as possible. The focal length is very short, you'll need to put the lens just 1 to 2 inches from the tinder.
• You can also carve a lens from clear ice with a knife. The ice must be perfectly clear, about 2 inches thick in the center with tapering edges. Polish the surface of your ice lens with the heat from your hands.
• Coke can lens. Polish the bottom of a soda can with chocolate, toothpaste, or ash to make it super shiny. Tilt the bottom of the can towards the sun and place your tinder about one inch away to light it.

Batteries and Steel Wool

• You can ignite steel wool but stretching it out and then connecting it to both ends of a battery. A 9-volt battery works well for this.
• Another battery solution: if you are in a broken down car your car's battery and or alternator can make a ton of hot sparks by causing an arc. Even a “dead” car battery will spark.

Bottom Line

Creating a spark, while vital, does not a fire make. You also need tinder that will ignite easily and hold the flame long enough for you to pile on small twigs to grow the fire. Excellent natural choices for tinder include tree sap, dry leaves, grass, pine cones, moss, and fungus. Man-made tinder includes charcloth or other fire starter products that you should carry in your survival kit. One survivalist recommends coating cotton balls with some petroleum jelly. Another person recommends soaking your tinder with an alcohol based bug repellent or hand cleanser to help it light. Dryer lint makes good tinder and I'm told you can light snack food like Cheetos and pringles chips.

Cooking with Cast Iron

“What a man needs in gardening is a cast iron back, with a hinge in it” -Charles Dudley Warner (American Editor and Author, 1829-1900)

I love my cast iron pots and skillets. We bought an expensive set of copper bottom, non-stick pans but they do stick and just don't give me the same satisfaction as cast iron. Also as noted yesterday, cast iron cookware can be used in Open Hearth fireplace cooking and in outdoor fire pits.

It is difficult to ruin a cast iron pan. You could crack it (maybe) by dropping it. But more likely your worst enemy will be rust. To avoid rust you want to keep your pans dry and well seasoned. See "CAST IRON JACK McGREW'S ULTIMATE METHOD FOR SEASONING CAST IRON COOKWARE"

Cooking Advice

• Cast Iron pots get hot, always have oven mitts handy when using your cast iron cookware.
• Remove food from cast iron as soon as it is cooked. Never store food in the cast iron pan or let it sit on the stove to keep warm. The acid in the food will breakdown the seasoning and the food will take on a metallic flavor.
• To avoid fire soot from coating your pan, rub the bottom and sides with soap before cooking. DO NOT apply soap to the cooking surface of the pan.

Cleaning & Storing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cast_iron_cookware

• Scouring or washing cast iron in a dishwasher will remove or damage the seasoning.
• Some people advocate never cleaning cast iron pans with soap. Instead scrape/wipe them out after use, or wash them with hot water and a stiff brush. Pans are easier to clean when still warm.
• Others note that grease left on a pan will eventually become rancid. When (if) this happens, wash with mild soap and water and then re-season the pan.

Bottom Line

If you do wash a pan, dry it over a fire or stove. The pan is most susceptible to rust when damp. Even if you towel dry the pan, there is water in the microscopic cracks and dimples of the metal. Store your cast iron cookware with the lids off, especially in humid weather, because if covered, moisture can build up and cause rust. Should rust appear, scrub out the rust with steel wool and re-season the pan.

Choosing the right wood for your fire

"I have a microwave fireplace in my house. The other night I laid down in front of the fire for the evening in two minutes.” - Stephen Wright

Hearth Cooking and backyard fire pits require that you use the right kind of wood. The following is reprinted from http://www.wommackhardwoods.com/ and http://www.spitjack.com/.

Wood Quality
High quality, well seasoned firewood greatly influences fireplace efficiency and enjoyment. Well seasoned firewood starts easier, burns cleaner, and generates more heat. Green, wet wood can cause problems with smoke, odor, creosote build-up and flu fires.

Choosing Firewood
Freshly cut wood can contain up to 45% water. Well-seasoned wood ranges from 20-25% moisture content. Well-seasoned wood is easier to start, produces more heat, and burns cleaner. The important thing to remember is that the water must be gone before the wood will burn. In general, it takes about six months for wood to dry if stored uncovered, outside. Three to four months may be sufficient if under roof, cut in short lengths, and split for more air exposure.

NOTE: Wood exposed to constant rain or snow absorbs large amounts of moisture, and may rot. Store wood off the ground, protected from excess moisture, such as under a roof or in a loose-sided shed which allows for air circulation. But be aware: firewood attracts termites. Limit the amount stored next to the house or garage to just a one-week supply.
In olden times, on rainy days, when the wood supply got wet, it was brought into the house and stacked near fireplace. The heat of the fire would dry the wood out. While clever this is also a fire hazard. Be sure to place screens between the stacked wood and any fire sparks.

How can you tell if wood is seasoned?
Well-seasoned firewood generally has darkened ends with visible cracks or splits. It is relatively light weight, and makes a sharp, distinctive "clink" when two pieces strike each other. Green wood feels heavier, the ends look brighter and fresher, and they make more of a dull "thud" when bumped together. But, these visual signs can be tricky to detect. To be sure, buy your wood in the spring and store it until the following fall and winter. Test: If you're not sure if your wood is dry enough, lay one piece in the fireplace and try to light it with a piece of paper. If it doesn't ignite, it's too wet. If it does light, but sizzles and requires constant stoking, it is still too wet. A good dry piece of wood will fire easily and burn nicely without much attention in a normal draft.

What type of wood is best?
Pound for pound, all wood has about the same BTU, but hardwoods weigh more, and therefore have higher heat potentials. Hardwoods also burn slower, which means less trips to the wood pile! Hardwoods include oak, hickory, ash, apple, and cherry. Some softer woods, such as elm or maple, are also suitable for burning, but you should expect to pay considerably less for them. Don’t burn evergreens even if they are free for the taking. Pine creates little heat and throws off creosote when burned, the number one cause of chimney fires.

Bottom Line
Additional information on firewood: http://muextension.missouri.edu/explorepdf/agguides/forestry/G05450.pdf http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/malheur/product/firewood.htm

Open Hearth Cooking

"While rewarding in so many other ways, authentic fireplace cooking ... is a tedious, time consuming, physically demanding, dirty, and somewhat dangerous endeavor" - SpitJack.com

At this time of year we sing about chestnuts roasting on an open fire. It's fun, it's beautiful, it's nostalgic, and it's inherently dangerous. Let's start with the Safety Rules before discussing Open Hearth Cooking.

1. Never leave a fire unattended. If you must step away, place a fireproof screen to cover the fire place.
2. Keep your chimney clean. Chimney fires, while rather infrequent, can be frightening and even result in burning down your home.
3. Do not burn pine or evergreen logs. Pine emits creosote when burned, and creosote buildup is the main cause of chimney fires.
4. Keep the area near the fire clear of any thing flammable. Sparks can jump many feet out of the fire place.
5. Keep the hearth clean of grease to avoid grease fires. Use drip pans when roasting or boiling to prevent the grease from dripping directly on the hearth.
6. Keep a bucket full of water and a fire extinguisher near the fire place.

The first secret to enjoying Hearth Cooking is building a proper fire. You must skillfully build and maintain a very hot fire using heavy hardwood.Don’t skimp with the wood when starting the fire because you want lots of embers and coals to develop. Don't skimp on time either. It can take a hour or more to get the right fire conditions with lots of ember, little to no flames.

Once built, you must maintain the fire by poking about it, shoveling hot embers to and fro, and feeding it from both the front and the back. Place the largest log against the back wall. When it burns down in size, pull it towards the front and replace it with another large log. The rest of the time you feed smaller replacement logs from the front.

Improvisation sits at the heart of hearth cooking. You can make stand for kebabs, a grill, a frying pan, a griddle, or a pot by placing embers between bricks. Many foods like Flat Bread and Roasted Onions can be cooked directly on the embers. Other foods can be baked buried in hot ash, either directly, such as potatoes or Ash Cakes, or wrapped in oiled paper, large leaves, or clay.

Don't use your expensive copper bottom stove set! It could melt. For Hearth Cooking you need cast iron skillets and pots. These are heavy and the handles are always very hot but they are nearly indestructible. The best pots are called "Dutch Ovens". You can buy them with feet so you can shovel embers beneath the pot and with flat lids with a raised lip so you can pile embers on top of the pot. Dutch Ovens are used to cook NEAR to the fire, not IN the fire. To cook over the fire itself you'll want a crane or fireplace hook from which you can suspend pots.

Bottom Line

Open-Hearth cooking was the way to cook for centuries before the wood burning stove was invented. But as the quote at top notes, Hearth Cooking can be dangerous both to you (scalds & burns) and to your house (fire). I don't recommend learning this by trial and error. Learn from past experience through books, The Magic of Fire, The open-hearth cookbook, and with classes at Historical sites like this one in Camden, NJ.