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Rocky fire cause

Daveroo

Daveroo

Members +
Hi All,it was reported here locally that the Rocky fire was caused by a faulty water heater.this confuses me,as a plumber for 20 years (only ended when i broke my back),a father who was a plumber from the time he was a teenager (as i was) my grandfather who started our family business in 1945,and his uncle Bill who started a plumbing company at Lake Tahoe in 1906 ,yup 1906,Uncle Bill was a volunteer wildland fireman at Lake Tahoe ,though everyone was,and my dad and i were volunteer firefighters with Auburn city calif,dad from 1962,my birth year.he is still on the active volunteer roster at age 79.he and i can think of only two fires in our area that the official cause was "faulty water heater" .we both call BS,one was caused when a man was washing auto parts and splashed fuel while walking past a water heater,where the fumes ignighted the fire,he was burned over the majority of his body and being high school friend of mine,told me the truth,he splashed the fuel,Auburn City fire dept chose to blame the water heater and the installer.then a local Family,the Kirby's were readying for a hunting trip when a fire started in the garage and burned the house to the ground,there was so much gun ammunition going off,the fire dept decided to let it burn for safety's sake.this fire was also caused by a faulty water heater according to the state fire marshals office,again BS,,mr Kirby (i am still friends with his boys) told me he made the mistake of setting 4 -5 gallon fuel cans of gas under the riser box directly under the water heater,he saw fire lick from the water heater to the first can,which began torching from the open top,,all 4 cans were open for whatever reason.the news stated the Rocky fire water heater cause was when the water heater failed,igniting flammable liquids in the shed.again.the only way a water heater ever fails is when it begins to leak,this does not cause fires.i suspect that the fire was started when vapors from the flammable liquids nearby,not from the water heater failing.if it were an electric water heater,is seriously unlikely the spark from a short would be large enough to spark the vapors,its possible but not likely.there was a Blevie caused by an exploding water heater in the early 50s..ironically installed by my grand father,but it was proven that the owner disconnected the relief valve and capped it,it built up to much pressure and blew its bottom.
id really like to hear from CalFire the actual report,or see it..i hate to see some plumber blamed when infact its not very likely the WH caused it.im going to try to contact Daniel Berlant who is the chief PIO for CalFire.we have one another on facebook.were not friends,but know one another.

dave
 
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