Your Unit Is Not Your Castle - Part I

The association issued an urgent safety bulletin to unit owners. The bulletin was prompted by a disastrous fire at a nearby condominium association, which is believed to have started in the fireplace, firebox, or flue.

Our condominium is similar in design and construction to that which experienced the fire, and is about 35 years of age. Some of our units have a gas fired fireplace. Not all do; this was a $1,500 option back in 1978. Doesn't seem like much money by today's standards, but it's helpful to remember that a decent home (3 BR, 1 bath, 2-car garage, 0.33 acres) could be purchased in Wheaton for as little at $52,000 back then. I know, because I did! On the other hand, wages were lower too, and $25,000 a year was a very good wage. That's inflation!

The bulletin has resulted in some owner comments. I understand that some have stated they have no issue with this, and in fact, are very willing to comply. I also understand a few have questioned the necessity to have the fireplace inspected. One has refused and stated "I'm going to use my fireplace as-is."

That's an interesting perspective. The issue is very simple. Our management has advised us that they observed the damage and is very involved in the coordination of the cleanup, etc. It is with their guidance that BLMH has issued the statement to unit owners. According to management, there was no indication that the unit owner did anything improper in the fireplace. It's reasonable to assume this fireplace had been used many times in the past. However, this year, it failed, and when it did, it did major fire damage to the building.

The goal of the inspection, which includes a brief list of guidelines, is to assure that your fireplace, firebox, flue and chimney are intact, and safe to use.

To complicate this further, during the November association meeting, an elderly couple took the opportunity to make a statement about their concerns about safety at BLMH. This was prompted, they said, by the recent "fire" at the 1731 building. That "fire" was a near miss, with very minimal damage. What's minimal? Probably $2,000 or so, including a damaged window. That meeting was about 12 days prior to the serious fire at the nearby community.

So, what is the real issue here? In an association with families and singles, in 336 units, with ages from their 20s to their 90s, what is the appropriate action? And why the resistance by some unit owners to an "Urgent Fireplace Safety Warning?"

Living in a condominium association, we give up some personal freedoms. That's the way it is in a "Common Interest Development" or CID. I suspect a few of us don't know that, or have forgotten.

I'm going to quote an attorney who specializes in these matters. “People have this idea that they have a deed to this particular property and this is their castle,” however, he often has to remind people “your home is not your castle; your home is part of everyone’s castle.”

According to this article from which I quote the attorney, developments such as BLMH are attractive to buyers because "they are low maintenance, and city planners like them because they make better use of increasingly scarce areas for development. However, those homes come with a complex set of rules and regulations. It might be something as banal, yet frequently irksome, as how many pets you can have, or even what constitutes a pet."

“As a result,” he says, “many people have a hard time adjusting to life in a common interest development.”

“For the most part, the general public is not aware of what their rights and obligations are in these kinds of arrangements...Buying into a CID means you have elected to live together and be bound to each other, not just physically, not just by party walls or common lot lines, but to be bound together by a set of covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC & Rs) that are difficult to change.”

“The problem is the people who live in these units don’t understand what they have bought into,” says Richardson, “and the homeowner associations that run them do not always strike the right balance between a harmonious community and a viable business operation.”

It's my opinion that taking strong steps to protect the inhabitants of BLMH is an appropriate balance between being harmonious and a business. If your neighbor due to simple error, or accident, burns down the building you live in, that will certainly be an inharmonious event!

What we each do with the information that is provided to us, is our personal business. However, the failure of something in our unit can have serious consequences not only for ourselves, but also for our neighbors. Some examples include the dishwasher which springs a serious leak, a failure in our fireplace, or a fire in the clothes dryer, the utility fan, whatever. At times we will be inconvenienced by requests or rules of the association. Which is preferred, occasional inconvenience or disruption by serious events?

It's my opinion that how safe this association is, meaning how safe we are as owners and dwellers, is in part determined by our individual actions. I think it's useful to remember that we are, in fact, "bound together" and how we act as individuals does affect others in this community.

Comments, Corrections, Omissions, References

Note 1. Here's a link to the original article, from which I have quoted attorney Kelly Richardson. 

Kelly-Richardson-lawyer-interview.html

Note 2. The board or its members are not immune from making the same mistakes as owners. Recent boards, for example, have attempted to satisfy or placate each and every owner who comes before them with a problem or a complaint. In attempting to do so, at some point, a board will compromise some owners for the benefit of one or another. So how to make a good decision? Be familiar with the governing documents, and make decisions for the association as a whole, rather than for specific individuals, is probably a good start. 

Note 3. The bulletin was an association action, coordinated by the board and management. Management read and approved the notice, which was prepared by the board. This post is my personal opinion.

Fireplace Safety at BLMH - Part II

Here's a brief video of a gas fireplace at BLMH. This provides some information about the construction of a natural gas burning fireplace, and it's limitations.



Comments, Corrections, Omissions, References

Note 1. This is Part 2 of a two part instructional post on natural gas burning fireplaces. 


Part I can be found here:
http://briarcliffelakes.blogspot.com/2010/11/fireplace-safety-at-blmh.html

Fireplace Safety at BLMH - Part I

Our fireplaces are prefabricated gas burning fireplaces. They were not designed for burning of anything except natural gas with the ceramic logs and inserts provided in them.

NOTHING should be burned in your fireplace at BLMH except the gas flames of the ceramic logs. Burning anything in a BLMH gas burning fireplace, such as wood, paper, sticks, trash or a "flame" log is extremely dangerous and hazardous. Such burning can result in injury and death, and destruction of the entire building by a disastrous fire.

The prefabricated gas fireplace in your unit is constructed of light gauge sheet metal. It is designed for the lower temperature of a natural gas fire. It has a metal firebox. It does not have a brick hearth or a smoke chamber in the chimney. Your entire fireplace, from hearth to chimney to stack on the roof, is constructed of light gauge sheet metal, which is lightly insulated for the heat of a natural gas fire. The mantles are decorative stone or brick, and not designed to contain the heat and flames of a wood burning fire.

Burning anything besides gas as intended can easily result in overheating the firebox and flue and allow flames to escape into the walls and ceiling, where it can rapidly spread and consume the building. Wood burning in a BLMH gas fireplace can also eject embers and flammable creosote into the flue and onto the roof.

The past year in Wheaton, I have been told there have been five fireplace or chimney fires. None have been at BLMH. Let's keep it that way! See Note 2 and Note 3.

Natural gas fireplaces normally emit water vapor and carbon dioxide gas; that's it! If the air-fuel mixture is incorrect, it is possible the incomplete combustion will result in carbon monoxide gas. This should travel harmlessly up the chimney. Wood-burning fireplaces, or ones which use a fuel other than natural gas, do emit all kinds of particulates, gases and embers. Smoke can be obnoxious.

Our rules prohibit "Noxious or offensive activities." Smoke flowing from a chimney and down to a neighbor's unit could be offensive. It is useful for owners to remember that four neighbors share an entrance, and there is minimal separation between units. Smoke can travel down the slope of roofs and into your neighbor's kitchen. It is not uncommon for owners to have kitchen windows open when baking or cooking in winter. On mild days, we use our balcony. (See section IV-J of our rules and regulations, which is in your Welcome Packet.)

Included in the post is a video of a true wood burning fireplace. It is included here for comparison to yours. The wood-burning fireplace has an extended stone hearth and mantle, to contain any hot embers and absorb the intense heat of a wood fire. Compare this to the fireplace in your unit and you will see that your fireplace is a "light duty" one designed for low temperature gas flame. Your fireplace cannot properly contain embers, it cannot properly protect the building and structure from the heat of a wood burning fire.

The wood-burning fireplace has a straight chimney. The video shows what it looks like from the inside of the hearth, looking up, Your chimney is metal and it bends and turns. Your fireplace and chimney is only designed to emit heat, water vapor and hot gases.

From time to time, a few owners would like to convert a gas burning fireplace to a wood burning one. To do so properly is very costly, and may not be accomplished safely in our buildings. It would require replacement of the prefabricated gas unit, installation of a new hearth, mantle, flue and chimney. The entire installation from mantle to chimney exit, must meet all codes for wood burning. A proper metal flue, for example, must be a high performance, high temperature one rated 650C or "HT" which means it is designed to operate of temperatures up to 1200F! The chimney exit, above the roof, may need to be elevated and supported, and equipped with a special top.

Proper installation requires a special high temperature flue and that requires modification of the wooden supports all the way up to the roof and through it, and possible modification of the roof, to accommodate the exit of the flue to the new chimney and cap.

Obviously, much of this work must occur in the space between the walls, and if you live on the first floor, that means passing that new high temperature chimney through the walls of the unit above you. There are also issues of weight on the structure of the building. Our buildings were never designed for the possible weight of wood burning fireplaces.

Storage of the wood fuel would also create a problem. Our rules have limitations of what can be placed on owner patios and balconies. An owner of a wood-burning fireplace may use an burning log substitute for wood, such as "duraflame" but who is to assure that is exactly what is being done? There is also no proper way to store the wood and dispose of the hot ashes of a wood fire.

An owner may decide to skirt the rules by storing fireplace wood in the closet on the owner's patio and out of view. Unfortunately, wood can harbor all kinds of destructive pests, from termites to carpenter ants to emerald ash borers. These critters can then spread to our wooden structures and can even be carried inside with the firewood, to destroy the building from both inside and out. Emerald ash borers can migrate to our dozens of ash trees, infesting them and resulting in their costly destruction. Your fees pay for removal of diseased and dying trees and stumps.

From time to time, owners sometimes approach the board for approval to convert their gas burning fireplace to wood. At BLMH we do not have an acceptable procedure to do this and there is no such approval at this time.

CAUTION and WARNING - This video is a wood burning fireplace. It is posted to point out the differences between a wood-burning and our light duty natural gas fireplaces. NEVER BURN WOOD OR OTHER MATERIALS IN YOUR FIREPLACE. INJURY OR DEATH MAY RESULT!





Comments, Corrections, Omissions, References

Comment
This post was prepared November 17, but was delayed while I edited a video of a typical gas burning fireplace at BLMH. Because of a serious fire in a nearby condominium association, I decided to post it early and without that video.

Note 1. Each home is required by Illinois Law to have at least one working Carbon Monoxide detector. The reasons for having one is a matter of safety, and is for the unit owner's protection.


Note 2. I'll be posting an edited video of a BLMH gas fireplace in a few days. The difference between it and a "wood-burning" fireplace will be readily apparent. 


Note 3. A fire occurred in the Knolls on November 23. It allegedly  began as a "chimney fire" but the fire department is officially stating, at this time that "cause is not determined." The building residents were removed and the building is posted as "unsafe" until repairs are completed. A fire can have devastating personal consequences. 
Here is a press release; the highlights are mine:

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Fire Department Responds to Building Fire 11-23-10

WHEATON, Ill. – At approximately 8:15 p.m. on November 23, 2010, the Wheaton Fire Department was dispatched to a reported structure fire in the condominium building at 835 E. Farnham Lane. Upon arrival, fire crews identified a fire in the attic area of the building with some extension between floors and in the walls. The fire was brought under control within 30 minutes. Several condominium units were occupied at the time of the fire and all residents evacuated safely. The incident did not result in any injuries.

Investigators from the Wheaton Fire Department along with the DuPage Fire Investigation Task Force conducted a fire investigation. The cause of the fire is undetermined at this time and damage estimates have yet to be determined. The City of Wheaton Building Department was called to the scene and the building was posted unsafe for occupancy due to the damage. The Wheaton Fire Department was also assisted on the scene by the Wheaton Police Department and fire departments from Carol Stream, West Chicago, Lombard, Glen Ellyn, Hanover Park, Warrenville, Winfield, and Glenside Fire Protection District along with Ducomm Public Safety Communications. The building was turned back over to condominium association representatives after the fire.

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