what a crappy way to start the weekend...

A pretty quiet and uneventful day at work and both boys gone so M and I decided to go into SF for supper tonight. Unfortunately, it did p stay uneventful for our neighbors about 6 or so houses up the hill from us. M got a text while we were waiting for our food from a friend that there was a big house fire in our neighborhood. You sit there wondering is it our house? If not, is anybody hurt?? Drove back in the whole street was filled with first responsers. The event was pretty much over but the house was totaled. They had just seeded their lawn today! New construction, in the house for about 9 months. Sounds like a grill on a deck with an overhang took off on him. I know I'll be stocking an extinguisher out on my deck. Once it got into the rafters, it was gone! What a crappy way to start a weekend but thank God no one was hurt!!

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Here's a pix of the back deck of that house on fire. I'm not going to take my grill off of the deck because its hooked up to the house gas but will have a fire extinguisher within 10 feet and during the summer I have a 75 foot hose within 25 feet. Be more aware, keep the grill maintained, and keep rolling the dice that its a low probability event.

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I replaced my deck with an interlock paver patio - much less maintenance and safer in a situation where your BBQ gets out of control. Probably a bigger risk though, is vinyl siding. There have been a few house fires in my neighborhood. The houses next to them had the vinyl badly melted and came very close to going up in flames as well.

The apartments I use to live in had a very strict no grills on the deck rule as I'm sure most if not all apartment complexes have. It's there for a reason.

People around here like to deep fry turkeys on Thanksgiving and there always seems to be at least 1 person that burns their house down.