Wed, 06 Feb 2008
That was cold
The kids noticed last night that the warm air from our gas furnace in the basement suddenly smelled hot, then it smelled disturbingly hot, as if things were going south in a real hurry. I killed it at the thermostat & went downstairs to cut the main power to the furnace and found water swirling around it - most of the county is flooded and yesterday's thunderstorm/sleet/blizzard/&c was the last straw. Water was coming in steadily through the ancient brick wall on the north side of the basement and heading straight down the old coaling area towards the furnace.
The websites I found said you should have a gas furnace checked by a technician after flooding, so I got in line with the local contractor and tried to work in the 54F downstairs library shivering in two flannel shirts, a jacket and sweat pants. Fortunately we have a separate heating & power system upstairs so the kids spent most of the day up there staying warm.
The contractor came by about 5 this evening - since 6:30 last night he's done nothing but climb down into flooded basements and check furnaces & hot water heaters. Some families lost the computer card that controls the furnace, one had a fire; we were mighty lucky - nothing was damaged, so now it's blasting blessed heat again.
posted by Bill White at 18:54 | permalink | email me | | |
