Lucky to be alive, I think

[janiece]

This morning when I got up I didn't feel well and wanted to go right back to bed. But I got up and got the animals out for their morning jaunt and then reset the alarm and went back to bed.

When I got up and headed to the kitchen I was hit with the overwhelming smell of gas! During the storms the high winds channeled through the vent and blew out the pilot light on the water heater! I opened all the doors and windows and turned off the water heater and the furnace. I left the house to air out when I came to work today and I'll relight the pilot this evening - provided the wind has died down! If not, I'll not relight it until morning.

A close call this morning, for sure. The pilot gets blown out every couple of years but it's never been as bad as this morning. Thought I'd tell you guys because if I tell my family I'll undoubtably get some kind of lecture.

[superduty]

Thanks for the heads up!!! With these high winds we have been having everybody needs to be aware of this! Glad your ok!!!

[homefire]

I never seal my house up. I always leave a door, window or some fresh air in some how. I don't care if it's -10 out side.

[liquid1]

Glad your ok..i would have a few of them carbon Dioxide Sniffers around just in case..

[echostar61]

Glad You are okay

Terri

[bbqcook]

Glad everything went as well as it did. You could be still sleeping.
I would get one of those gas detectors like they put in campers and mount it somewhere near the appliances.
Glad you are ok.

Earl

[Yardog]

Happy Ending, Maybe Someone was watching over You!!

[danhughes]

Maybe a dumb question, but aren't pilot lights supposed to automatically seal the gas line if the flame goes out?

[janiece]

Dan, I have no idea. If they are supposed to then my water heater is faulty. I'm going to see if there are water heaters that do not have a flame on all of the time. My furnace has an electronic ignition that only comes on when the furnace is going to kick on and there is only gas to it as needed. Seems like something like that should be available on the water heater. Mine is about 10 years old so it might be getting close to time to replace it anyway. I'll be updating the detectors at my house, too. I recently took the CO detector down because I wanted to replace it - it's several years old, probably about 15.

I had a window open for part of the night and closed it when the furnace kicked on. I don't think the pilot light had actually been out very long, but definitely long enough!

My supervisor her tonight said she's glad I showed up to work. Yeah, cuz if I hadn't I've have woken up dead!

[drver]

Janiece glad the hear your OK, man that was tooooo much excitement..


Yea Dan brings up a good point, the gas should not be able to get in without the ignition working correctly. May want to call the gas company to make sure the trouble is with the heater and not a line someplace.