Home explosion due to furnace malfunction

[2sac]

So what would cause a furnace to intermittently function? A SV9500.....

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A homeowner with enough knowledge to make him dangerous

[2sac]

jdblack, I have ZERO experience in residential. In the restaurant business there are many ,shall I say, cheap individuals running these establishments. Many restaurant owners think because a cook can turn an appliance on, he can also fix it. Especially on the hot side. Once the cook has broken the appliance beyond belief, they call us. The cooks watch us do our work and think they can do it themselves and be heros. I bet you resi guys have homeowners standing over your shoulders more often than not.

[jdblack]

.. I bet you resi guys have homeowners standing over your shoulders more often than not.

Yeah but they don't follow me into crawlspaces or 120 degree attics


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[BaldLoonie]

The family home had a 1950s boiler. Late 80s, my Dad was home and the old boiler started rockin & rollin' and the house was becoming an oven. The gas valve stuck on. Now my Dad could barely figure out what end of a screwdriver to hold but he did manage to get the gas shut off. But that was way before modern safe gas valves were invented. Haven't heard of a redundant valve sticking open. Yes, heard of a few bleeding by but not enough to cause any problem, just a little odor.

[wolfstrike]

if it's a modern furnace, my guess would be a newbie installed a gas retrofit kit

[craig1]

The house was for sale until early this year when they gave up.

The kids were at a friends house

The mom and boyfriend were at a casino and just happen to have videotaped alibis

The cat was being boarded. Who boards a cat for a night out? Leave it food and water and they're good for a few days.

The owner of the house (her ex) owes two mortgages on it, and isn't allowed near it due to a restraining order

The owner tried to file bankruptcy to get out of the mortgages but was denied.

Nothing suspicious here, move along




Somehow I suspect there will be a very interesting follow up in a few weeks.

Do not pass go, do not collect insurance settlement, go directly to jail.

[BaldLoonie]

Lotsa things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm

[motoguy128]

The house was for sale until early this year when they gave up.

The kids were at a friends house

The mom and boyfriend were at a casino and just happen to have videotaped alibis

The cat was being boarded. Who boards a cat for a night out? Leave it food and water and they're good for a few days.

The owner of the house (her ex) owes two mortgages on it, and isn't allowed near it due to a restraining order

The owner tried to file bankruptcy to get out of the mortgages but was denied.

Nothing suspicious here, move along




Somehow I suspect there will be a very interesting follow up in a few weeks.

Do not pass go, do not collect insurance settlement, go directly to jail.

Boarding a cat? really? 4-5 days easy without even scooping the liter. Leave a faucet dripping very slowly, use 4 or 5 liter boxes and a self dispensing feeder that holds 7-8lbs of food and a single cat is good for at least a month if needed.


Seems like too much of a coincidence for sure. I'm guessing they overestimated the amount of boom you get, or expected it to light off sooner and just burn the house down. Would be more believeable if they were on vacation, not gone for one night and they let the cat get blown up.

Natural gas explosions in homes are one of the few moments where even hollywood falls short on how much damage is caused (usually they are over the top).

Something as simple as looseening a threaded pipe, then just wait for the contactor on a refrigerator or a deep freeze in the basement to light it off. OR set the thermostat schedule at an ideal time, hours after you've left. With natrual gas, there's plenty of ignition sources. It doesn't take much in the right concentration.

2 counts of manslaughters, public endangerment, maybe some charges as a terrorist under the Patriot Act, with a little insurance fraud to go with it. Throw in criminal conspiracy for those that had knowledge.

[g_friendly]

This is sad. Yesterday we were at a home and the customer said that her "Steam Boiler" was making a funny noise and an air vent blew. So she hit the emergency switch. When we open the cover the high presure switch was jumped. She said a different company was there 2 weeks ago and they charged her $150 and got the heat going... how lucky do you think she got!

[koolkahuna]

I haven't seen any pictures of this tragic incident but with natgas being lighter than air, ignition normally occurs at the bottom of the cloud where the right fuel/air mixture is. Opposite for propane as it is heavier than air. Therefore if the roof is completely gone but some walls left it could be natgas but if roof there and walls are gone, propane or another vapor state accelerant could be the cause. This is known as "roof in basement syndrome". A 30lb BBQ propane tank leaking in the basement could build up without odour being detected if the leak was slow enough to fill the basement and the furnace blower was not circulating the air. Stratified gas could then be ignited when the top of the propane cloud got high enough for another ignition source such as the electrical contacts on the fridge as previously suggested. There is tremendous power in that amount of gas.
Unless an expert is there to tell the difference, a propane explosion could be mistaken as a natgas incident.
Fire and explosion investigators have a ton of knowledge to determine the cause. If there is a good one involved they will solve this.

As a side note, there is over 100 times the chance of a fatality in a propane explosion than in a natural gas explosion.

[BaldLoonie]

[koolkahuna]

That looks more like propane than natural gas but I am not even close to being an expert. Any news from the investigators?

[BaldLoonie]

They are being quiet. No issues with gas lines exterior to the house. The ex husband is the one pointing to the furnace, the ex wife who lives there says no furnace issue but boyfriend changed the stat to get heat on. First said no gas issues then said daughter smelled gas but they did nothing.

[BaldLoonie]

Just announced by Homeland Security: It is now a homicide investigation.

[SBKold]

Wonder what that means exactly.

[Rodney28334]

A white van that looked suspicious was seen before the explosion, beyond that they aint sayin.

[Chris_Worthington]

A white van that looked suspicious was seen before the explosion, beyond that they aint sayin.

Loonie has vans and he is in the area

[jdblack]

That may exceed the million dollar liability.

[koolkahuna]

If it was Tovex, that would explain the devastation. If it was a fuel gas, my money is on propane.

[BaldLoonie]

It was an older unmarked white van that normally hung around there. Was gone Sat afternoon before the kaboom. Cops say they have 2 people they are talking to and have warrants out for more.

Luckily, Chris, long ways from our stomping grounds. Our dispatcher, however, lives across the main road from that subdivision. Slept through it! But it knocked the blinds off the windows on that side of the house and blew a vent from the side of the house into the attic.