In Mid-June, I Had A Major Fire At

I've never heard of this problem before, but it bit me hard, and I found another situation that was developing. According to the tenant's son, it began making a grinding noise minutes before the fire started. I was working for awhile in an apartment in that complex that came open last weekend; we have someone waiting for it so we have to turn it immediately. I took it down, disassembled it, cleaned it out, lubed it, and put it back. The fan housing was plastic, so it burned and the fire was quickly in the attic. Fortunately, it only burned out one unit. The fan motor (which ordinarily should be at most very slightly warm to the touch, after extended running time) was almost too hot to handle. After all, what'll it cost you to do that?. I have no clue where the lint came from; this is an upscale property in an upscale neighborhood, and we seldom have sanitation problems with our people, and in the majority of cases we return at least part of the deposit (meaning cleaning, damage and repair expense due to tenant negligence is minimal). While I was working in there, I took the cover off the vent fan in the bathroom. Eventually the fan overheats, blows a spark as the motor fails, and ignites the lint.In mid-June, I had a major fire at one of my complexes.However it got there, it was there - and in quantity. Some deposits on the fan. I got very lucky because a chain of circumstances led to unusually rapid response from both Police and Fire departments.Bingo! This fan was covered with lint, probably as much as a quarter inch all over the motor and inside the housing.Now, I have been scratching my head over how a vent fan could start such a fire.This idea had never occurred to me before, the more so because I cannot account for where the lint came from.Today, since I am very shorthanded right now, I was running service calls.I'm also going to pull all the vent fans in my house and look at them. However, I do not know if ALL vent fans have this feature; the complex I have been discussing was built in the mid '70s and it does not have them, and my house was built in 1992 and IT does not have them in the vent fans.Now, later model vent fans have a thermal fuse in them; if that motor gets too hot the fuse blows.As soon as I have enough staff back in place (next week, I hope), I'm going to start an inspection program for all our vent fans in every location. Fires tend to destroy a lot of clues, so we never figured this one out. We inspected about a third of the fans in the place. The vent fan is run a lot, and it pulls this lint/dust in.We pulled sample inspections on vent fans in the rest of the complex, and did not find anything unusual. So, I do not know if these fuses are common or not.So, what caused the fire in June is this: for some reason, a lot of lint and dust gets into the environment in the apartment. According to my service records, that fan was cleaned and lubed about two years prior, before the current tenant moved in. According to the tenant, it had been working normally the night before the fire.You might want to pull the covers off your vent fans and have a look.It seems that the fire started in the vent fan in one of the bathrooms..