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Plumber sets East Boston triple decker on fire
By adamg on Tue, 11/24/2015 - 6:29am
The Boston Fire Department is blaming a plumber's torch for a two-alarm fire at 217 Lexington St. that sent two firefighters to the hospital Monday night.
The fire, called in around 9:15 p.m., did an estimated $200,000 damage, the department says, adding the plumber was working in a third-floor bathroom.
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Comments
You'd think plumbers would have a fire extinguisher
bottle when bringing a torch bottle to use. At least the licensed professional ones.
Pressing Tool
My plumber now uses a pressing tool, similar to THIS.
Not cheap, but eliminates the need for pesky fire.
If plumber was sealing up a
If plumber was sealing up a copper pipe that is attached to toilet bowl and that goes deeply into wall where it's most likely to be insulated and the flame from torch probably ignited some of that insulation, a recipe for a major fire, maybe it was foam insulation or the old cotton candy like insulation the foam insulation ( still flamable once its hard) will shoot up and down of the interior of walls and go up instantly once a hits it.
Hire licensed/insured Professionals
Any responsible, licensed plumber soldering/braising copper will have a fire extinguisher right next to the B-Tank... they go hand in hand. Hopefully this person is licensed, pulled a permit and has liability insurance. Let's face it people, hiring Uncle Joe's buddy who's a handyman to do some repair work on copper may be 1/4 of the cost but it's also a recipe for disaster.
And to the guy promoting the ProPress for crimping copper. All I have to say is that you're putting a lot of faith in a rubber O-ring keeping 60psi is water in check. There's a lot of crap in water that dry rots rubber in no time. No thanks, I'll pass on that.
Hope the firefighters recoup in time for the holidays
Beyond the hobbyist accidents
It is a really good idea to have a couple of extinguishers in your home. They sell good ones for cheap at BJs, Target, Costco, etc. At the very least, they can help you clear a way to get out.
What?
Who's doing plumbing at 9:00 at night?
Emergency repairs? Or the
Emergency repairs? Or the fire, which probably started in an enclosed space like in the wall or a cabinet smoldered for a while after the work before taking off.