Features

Flameless fire 

Though residents of a home in the 900 block of Shattuck Avenue had smelled smoke through much of the day Nov. 6, it was not until they felt heat on the ceiling that they called 911. 

Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong said that no smoke alarms had been triggered before firefighters arrived. 

When the emergency workers arrived, they started from the top down, pulling away sections of the ceiling to discover what turned out to be a long-smoldering slow burn, apparently triggered by an electrical short. 

It was a case of pyrolysis, said the deputy chief, where enough heat is generated to char the wood without bursting into a faster-burning open blaze. 

Residents of the single-family home were displaced for the night, and the total loss was estimated at $22,000—$15,000 in structural damage and the remainder in harm to the contents.  

Main Burst 

Firefighters on the morning of Nov. 5 rushed to respond to the 1000 block of Euclid Avenue, where a 16-inch water main had burst. Water had erupted through at least four places in the street and was sending a flood cascading down Euclid. 

By the time the main was repaired, the entry and part of the ground floor of one home had been flooded, along with its garage and that of a second home, while the landscaping of a third house had been damaged and flooded, plus the yard and floor of a fourth home had been flooded. 

No damage estimate was available, said the deputy chief.