Yep. I had one last night!
Seems a spark or an ember dropped down between my hearth and the fireplace, and started the wooden frame smoldering, which in turn started the floor and the wall smoldering. It smoldered all day Sunday while we were out (and probably through part of the night before). Got in and started making dinner, and while I had some meat simmering, I was tidying up around the fireplace, and noticed a couple wisps of smoke coming out from under the hearth. I grabbed a flashlight and had a look down the little gap, and saw some charred wood (and heard some crackle popping), so I opened the fireplace door, so I could get a better angle to see, and that either created a puff of air, or a draft, and the smolder ignited.
I yelled for the wife, told her to go downstairs and give a report, I grabbed a fire extinguisher, and blasted it down through the gap. Or at least I tried to...
When you read the instructions on an extinguisher an the say "HOLD UPRIGHT"... they mean it. but being where the fire was, I had to hold it horizontal and only got a few puffs of suppressant out before the thing gassed out. I grabbed another one, held it on a bit straighter angle and got several good blasts down and put the fire out.
I poured some water down, to cool things off, and put out any of the smoldering parts. But, it was resilient, and kept crackling and popping.
So I went to the garage, and brought in my sprayer, like this:
Sprayer | Princess Auto
I was able to wiggle the nozzle down the gap, and then turn it in different directions to spray water around and put out the smolder-ers... or so I thought...
I was contemplating ripping the hearth apart to double check things, and we had a quick bite to eat, to discuss our next steps, and sure enough, another wisp of smoke, and a couple more crackles... That decided it. My hearth stone is an 18" wide by 6+ feet long, 4" thick slab of Limestone. Which I didn't want to break if possible, but it was bolted down to the frame of the hearth itself. So I grabbed a Jack-all and with the wife started lifting it up one side at a time, ripping the 2X6's right out of the frame. We were then able to stand it on edge, and then swing it off and on top of a covered coffee table, and then drag the whole thing out of the way. I pulled a bunch of nails, securing the hearth frame, cleaned up all the gunk (ash, extinguisher powder and waterlogged muck. then pulled the whole hearth off.
The fire burnt clean through the hardwood flooring in a couple places, into the sub floor, and up the wall under the fireplace. There were still several hot spots on the floor, so I drilled some holes through the hardwood, and found that the fire was smoldering along the joints of the hardwood, I pourd more water down there and with a satisfying sizzle. we were done.
Except now for the cleanup, and the repairs. Thank God for Insurance.
And Thank God for averting what could have been a whole hell of a lot worse.
I'll add some pics later, after I upload them
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