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Fire on Oakwood
08/02/2007 6:28 PM by John M
A 2-alarm fire hot enough to melt the siding on the house across the street burned for more than an hour at 1523 Oakwood Avenue this morning. While the entire back half of the home was destroyed, no one was injured in the blaze. [via]
1523 Oakwood Avenue
i have never seen siding melted like that…
nbc12 has a video interview with Evelyn Twyman, one of the residents of the house. “While this home, which she shares with her 96 year old mother, is likely a total loss, she says that’s nothing compared to being alive.” Saved by a smoke detector!
Another reason to not use vinyl siding besides the obvious ugly factor is that it is very hard to extinguish when it catches fires and the fumes are highly toxic.
Hmmmmm, based on that, I shouldn’t have a sofa either. When the materials used in the average sofa burn, it releases more than 1000 chemical compounds……any one of which are deadly.
Zack:
Your couch isn’t wrapped around your entire house.
Vinyl siding, or for that matter any PVC product is the most hazardous consumer product around today. It contains huge amounts of dioxin and toxic forms of chloride. It’s entire life cycle is a toxic waste dump from the time it is produced to the time that it either burns in a house fire or is “disposed”of.
If you live near a vinyl sided home and it catches fire, get the hell out of there. The Firefighters of American say that a house fire with vinyl siding can cause permanent lung disease and cancer just by inhaling the fumes (if it doesn’t kill you right then and there).
I can only say that one of the biggest triumphs of getting our O&H designation in Church Hill North was the banishment of such a horrible material.
Check out the documentary “Blue Vinyl.” It’s showing this month on the Sundance Channel and it’s website is http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/bv.html
if you want to order a copy.
It’s worth a look.
This house has been torn down.
This empty lot is for sale: http://www.postlets.com/repb/6380833 $10,500