Don’t judge a book by it’s cover

You can’t always smell or see a fire.

Last Thursday night, husband went to turn on one of the kids night lights. It was so hot that he couldn’t even turn it on. He threw out the night light assuming it was trying to draw too much currant. We have renovated several parts of our home, including gutting the kitchen down to the studs and rewiring most of the downstairs to code. The previous owners had several things plugged into the same breaker. For example, the stove, microwave, fridge and TV were all on one (also including all of the lights and the bathroom!). The microwave alone needs it own breaker. Anyway, we have never touch any of the wiring on the second floor because it is just the kids rooms and a bathroom. Eventually husband was going to make sure things were done properly and install new plug outlets since they were original to the 1965 house. We plugged a nightlight into a different plug and the girls went to bed. The next night we left for camping and the girls just got home on Wednesday night… which everything seemed fine upstairs.

Last night, husband was helping the kids get ready for bed and the lights started to flicker and eventually went out. Immediately thinking about the plug, husband ran to the room to find the plug melted together. He went down and turned off the breaker (#7 which had the ENTIRE 2nd floor on, including a jetted tub!). When he opened up the outlet he found that there had been a fire that burned and melted the entire side of the outlet and part of the wiring. The fire stopped burning when he turned off the breaker. I came home from worship team practice to find the kids still up. Wondering what was going on upstairs, this is the scene I found:

If the lights hadn’t flickered, or he hadn’t let the kids stay up a bit later than normal, they would’ve gone to sleep and the fire would have spread.

And I’ll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don’t fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you
~Tenth Avenue North, By Your Side