Not sure if anyone else saw it, but Ive been curious since learning about the fire. My guess was grill, some other guesses were Christmas lights, smoking, etc.
What interests me is it lit up juniper, which by fire code shouldn't be in the immediate 5 ish feet of the building exterior or around electrical or HVAC i.e. the non-combustible zone.
If the owner had properly culled out the juniper there would have been nothing to combust from the air con sparking. Maybe some smoke from melted plastics. But no real fire.
Source: I used to do property maintenance and had to prune these out for this very reason. RIP this property owner's insurance rates and legal responsibility
Was someone actively soldering on the AC unit? The article just seemed to suggest the soldering itself was bad but if they were, yeah, I can see some culpability falling on whoever did/was doing the work
Either way insurance for the owner isn't going to think much about who did the AC work, since usually HVAC companies have their own insurance. Just the proximity of the combustibles
It's going to be an all of the above kind of finding. If you're working with grinding, heat, fire, solder or welding outside, you MUST have a fire watch for exactly this eventuality.
If the HVAC guy had half a brain, he'd have had a water hose handy and none of this would have happened.
What interests me is it lit up juniper, which by fire code shouldn't be in the immediate 5 ish feet of the building exterior or around electrical or HVAC i.e. the non-combustible zone.
If the owner had properly culled out the juniper there would have been nothing to combust from the air con sparking. Maybe some smoke from melted plastics. But no real fire.
Source: I used to do property maintenance and had to prune these out for this very reason. RIP this property owner's insurance rates and legal responsibility
That's part of it but the HVAC company is going to catch some liability for failure to have a fire watch while doing hot work.
Was someone actively soldering on the AC unit? The article just seemed to suggest the soldering itself was bad but if they were, yeah, I can see some culpability falling on whoever did/was doing the work
Either way insurance for the owner isn't going to think much about who did the AC work, since usually HVAC companies have their own insurance. Just the proximity of the combustibles
It's going to be an all of the above kind of finding. If you're working with grinding, heat, fire, solder or welding outside, you MUST have a fire watch for exactly this eventuality.
If the HVAC guy had half a brain, he'd have had a water hose handy and none of this would have happened.
Assuming it was contracted out, and not onsite property maintenance. Like was said before, someone's insurance is taking the hit.
Very true.
Another example of why people shouldn’t guess and should wait for an investigation and an official explanation.