Fire and Water

No the title of today's blog is not a clever metaphor just simply the elements are they are. Why am I thinking of them at the moment....well today the basement had both fire (ok smoke signaling the coming of fire) and water. My fiance decided it was so nice the other day that he left the basement hatch open so our family room down there could have a much needed breeze and some sunshine. Well he closed the inner door to the stairway and left the hatch open, went to bed and then we had thunderstorms after midnight. The hatch remained open and water cascaded down to our carpeted family room. So today while using the wet vac to remove the remaining moisture I begin to smell sulphur. Hmm? I'm not using any sulphur, not using any fireworks or gunpowder so....should I not smell sulphur. I go outside, it smells stronger. I think Great! It must be someone else burning something with sulphur, and then I look to the sky! A giant black plume of smoke is coming from the chimney..(we have no fireplace). The smoke begins to get darker and darker. I call inside for my fiance to call 911 and turn off the furnace asap. We get to meet the entire town's fire department including the Chief and its two ladder trucks and some of the town's police staff too. Its a small town. And I've already been told our moving here has cost the town thousands in special education...I can only imagine this added more to our tally. Apparently my landlord decided it was ok to skip spending the $100 to clean the furnace so he could risk hundreds of thousands along with our lives by not cleaning it. Thankfully today was my day off and I was here to see and smell it before the house caught fire!