Monday, August 8

I set the basement on fire yesterday.

I have a kiln, loaned to me, that I must have mistakenly knocked the on switch when I moved it. It was resting on a fireproof pad and heated up to 2000 Fahrenheit for a few hours before melting the pad and burning a plywood sump pump cover. The plywood was the only wood part of the basement, if I had set the kiln down 2 feet in any direction I would have hit concrete and not had such a smoke problem. A small square foot of plywood was scorched, the smoke billowed out of the basement window, made visibility very difficult and the rest of the house smell like a bar-b-que smoker. We used the fire extinguisher and have had fans running since.

I am amazed at 2 things; the amount of smoke the small piece of wood made, and the fact our smoke detectors didn't go off.
I am annoyed with myself for not noticing I had turned the kiln switch on when I moved it...and
I am scared to use the kiln, which is a shame because I was having fun fusing glass - it was my artistic outlet from a process driven and very repetitive existence.

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