Fire

My kitchen has received a new coat of paint. The wall and exhaust fans have been replaced. The only remaining jobs in the kitchen yet undone is the replacement of a few pieces of kitchen cabinet tiles and well as some cabinet doors. The reason for this spruce up? Not because of Chinese New Year next week, that's for sure, although the urgency to have all these things done quickly was a factor. Rather, these activities were a result of a gas explosion in the middle of the night on the 10th of December last year.

We were upstairs sleeping when three or four muffled explosions woke us up at about 2.30am. At first, we thought nothing of it but then, something told me to go downstairs to investigate. The first thing I saw was the curtain at the doorway between the living room and the kitchen in flames on the floor. I skipped into the kitchen and found a rattan lampshade in flames. Also on the floor, some plastic bags were burning. I rushed back into the living room, picked up the remain piece of curtain, wetted it and then doused the flames which by then were burning down. The only good sign was that there was no smell of gas. Nevertheless, I glanced at the gas cylinder tank and decided to remove the regulator cap immediately. It was warm and the hose that connected it to a standalone stove had melted in part. 

We were shaken by the event and spent the next hour outside the house. After we were sure that it was safe to go in, we tried to go back to sleep. As if sleep was still possible. The next morning, the full extent of the explosion was clear:

• Gas cylinder tank blackened by soot on one side
• Gas cylinder regulator cap damaged
• Gas hose half-melted
• Wooden chopping board placed on top of the gas cylinder burnt halfway
• Marble tiles for kitchen cabinet top and wall found sooted, cracked, loosened and/or bent out of shape
• Certain floor tiles stained with burnt marks
• Paint on frame of back door burnt black and peeled
• Exhaust fan completely destroyed
• Gas stove (one burner) completely destroyed
• Window curtain completely burnt
• Six pieces of wooden doors for kitchen cabinet damaged
• Blades of table fan melted out of shape
• Rattan lampshade completely burnt
• Wooden stool partially burnt
• Blades of wall fan melted out of shape
• Casing of ceiling fluorescent light damaged
• Plaster ceiling cracked and peeled
• Doorway curtain completely burnt
• Kitchen walls and kitchen ceiling darkened with burnt marks
• Kitchen plants destroyed
• Flower pot in kitchen found cracked and broken

I quite marveled at the relatively small extent of the explosion and fire. The damage was quite contained within the kitchen; I would suspect thanks to the curtain that separated the kitchen from the living room. If not for this curtain, the gas could have escaped into the living room and any flame could have consumed the living room too. Gas being light, the flames had scorched the upper part of the kitchen walls and the plaster ceiling.

I remembered that we had taken an insurance policy on the house. So we contacted the insurance company and was put in touch with the insurance adjuster. First thing asked was whether the fire brigade was called. No, we said, because the damage to the kitchen was not extensive and it was practically over by the time I had come downstairs. We were advised to place a Police report then, which we did on the same day. One or two days later, the adjuster came to the house to inspect the kitchen and told us that the insurance could not cover non-fixtures. Okay, far enough, because that was the policy we had bought anyway. But I need a note to remind myself hat I would have to buy a separate policy to cover the movable items in the house. In the meantime, I had to get quotations to repair the damage to the kitchen - painting the walls and ceiling, replacing the damaged kitchen cabinet doors, replacing too the cracked marble tiles of the kitchen cabinet.

And so it has been a traumatic month for us, the fire coming 12 days after my wife fractured her little toe. It's been six weeks since her accident. Her fracture is healing well according to the orthopaedic surgeon and she can go about her business without any more pain. I can only hope that there won't be any more unpleasant surprises to come.

All that remained of the curtain that separated the living room from the kitchen

Cracked flowerpot in the kitchen. All my plants destroyed.

My destroyed rattan lampshade bought from Vietnam three years earlier

Blades melted beyond redemption

The marble tile next to the gas cylinder tank was singed black with soot and cracked in separate parts

Chopping block partially destroyed

Stove top destroyed