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Friday, July 29

Another episode with a pyromaniac!



The fitter would come on Tuesday to fit the Rayburn into the chimney. He came, he fitted, he left. The cement had to "go off." ie dry out. 
Jon's eyes were glowing with excitement and anticipation when he said "Shall we light it?"
Now as I have mentioned before, Jon is an avid instruction manual reader and  has been reading up on the scientific operation of a Rayburn for weeks now. The Rayburn was not connected to the central heating system, it was so to speak a stand alone log burner. 
Jon brought in some kindle, paper and logs and lo the Rayburn was lit!


In no time at all the fire was glowing and the room warmed up.


Making use of the warm oven I popped a pie inside, would be defrosted and nicely heated through for Jon's dinner.



The dial was moving in the right direction.

Jon went into the bath and left me to enjoy the lovely warm kitchen. I thought it was a tad smoky but didn't worry too much - and put a couple more logs on.

After a short while Jon came downstairs and I said I would go and have a bath too.

Now Jon is a very calm, unassuming  chap, so when he said, "Em don't go in the bath just yet, we may have a fire!" I did indeed smile - thinking he was joking! He wasn't!

There was a fire in the Rayburn.
We threw a water soaked old towel onto the burning logs and then, using BBQ tools, Jon lifted the burning logs out and threw them into a bucket outside.
After a while the flames inside settled and the fire was under control.

Jon hadn't read the part of the instructions which stated "Never light the Rayburn without filling the water tank with water!" 

The thermostat control ie wires etc had melted with the heat of the flames!


The new thermostat arrived today!

20 comments:

  1. Oh no! Sounds like just the sort of thing that I would do though... Glad it's all right x

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  2. Emma - any excuse to light a fire and Jon is front of the queue! All is well now - but we did have a laugh! lol!

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  3. Aaaagh!! Nearly a disaster. Quick thinking with the water-soaked towel and the bucket. Good luck for when the water tank is filled up. It sounds as though your new kitchen will be very toasty and warm when we all have cold weather. Ann x

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  4. could have been worse!
    glad you are ok and new thermostat so prompt in ariving
    looking forward to seeing lots more pie pictures when winter comes!

    blessings x

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  5. What got me about this post wasn't the fact your trying to burn down your wonderful, not yet finished kitchen
    but the line... "In no time at all the fire was glowing the room warmed up"
    wahahahahahahahahahaaaa
    Hello........... I think it is still July ?
    I must admit it did get down to a chill 99 degrees from the 104 degrees just a few days ago in Tucson but lighting a fire ? So beyond my frame of reference.
    We don't even turn on our ovens until late fall and iced coffee is a must !

    All joking aside I am happy that all is well and all you need is a new thermostat.

    cheers, parsnip

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  6. Did you say you laughed? You are a woman in a million, Mrs. N.

    —Kay, Alberta, Canada

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  7. You know what they say about Murphy's Law. So glad it wasn't any worse. You have a very enterprising, unruffled and steady thinking husband!

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  8. Yeah, RTM I HAVE to do, because I am clueless otherwise.

    Glad you're OK.

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  9. OMG! That is far too complicated a machine for moi! I think I'd have panicked...gas furnace for me any day. :D

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  10. It's easy to laugh after the event. I'm not so sure I would though.
    Denise, you've convinced me to stick with what I've got... an electric oven.

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  11. Now that sounds like something I would do. I'm the one who tries it first and reads the instructions later. At least it was fixable.

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  12. Sorry Denise but I had a job to read this for laughing. I know I am awful but you paint such a vivid picture of it all!

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  13. Oh no! But .. Hahahahahahahahaha!!!

    Love the fact that he read the manual for weeks and still didn't get the important part! LOL!

    I'm so glad everything was OK, and only a thermostat was harmed. ;)

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  14. I nknow I shouldn't laugh, but I did. And it seems I'm not alone.

    But my sympathies are with John. Of course we men read the manuals for all the intersting stuff, like how many million degress the core temperature reaches and how many kilo joules of energy it produces per second etc, but not for the actual working instructions!

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  15. It's always a good idea to read ALL the instructions first. ;)

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  16. Holy shit Denise - only you (giggle) - I'm glad there was no lasting damage done! Give that man of yours a medal for his quick thinking, eh?

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  17. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank goodness he didn't fall asleep up in the bath!

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  18. Aaaah! You poor eager beavers!
    Glad the house and everything is ok.!

    Take care ,

    Sandie xx

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  19. A friend re lit their rayburn, after the plumber had been doing some work, but un-be-known to her, he had stopped the water supply either side of the back boiler, the steam pressure built untill it blew up, throwing hot coal across the kitchen, mum and kids were sat at the kitchen table, dad a sub mariner was away at sea! Fortunately no one was injured, a lot of smoke damage to house though, mum had the presence of mind to shut the kitchen door behind her as they fled and they managed to close the kitchen windows, from the outside (they lived in the middle of no-where) and contained the fire to the kitchen

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  20. well, at least you know that the chimney draws well!

    When we had a woodburning Rayburn I found when there was a strong wind in a certain direction and the wood burned-up too quickly in spite of the dampers, a good layer of potato peelings woked perfectly to keep the fire in all day.

    We now have an oil one who goes by the name of Reg.
    Unfortunately due to the price of oil he gets turned out for the summer which I hate- there's no doubt they're the heart of the home

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Thank you for your comments, always nice to know somebody has taken the time to let me know what they think.