I once had a bit of excitement around a propane refrigerator. Propane refrigerators can be a pain to start. I knew this because the only type one could use at the fire lookout was propane. The only electricity there was from battery power. I was shown how to light a refrigerator like that by someone with experience. Some of these refrigerators could be lit with a couple of d cell batteries. Others needed a match to do the lighting. There was a whole routine to go through to light the refrigerator. Turn the gas on. Wait a minute for the gas to go along the line to the refrigerator. Turn a valve to the start position and press it in. Then hold the match to the lighting area, and hope that it worked. Sometimes it would light quickly, with no problem. Other times it took several attempts with a few matches, before the welcome whoosh sound of the burning gas was heard. My excitement started when I was sent to clean up a staff house on an island on a big lake, that had recently been vacated . The island had a man made road link to the mainland. I was to stay there a few days, so I attempted to start up the propane refrigerator. The person who had installed it had not thought much about the fact that someone would have to light it some day. The length of propane pipe, allowing the refrigerator to move and allowing me access to the back of it, was very short. It was difficult to get behind close enough to light the pilot light with a match. I tried lighting it a few times with a match, but the match always burnt out before getting the refrigerator lit. Then I had an idea. I would try first lighting a little propane soldering torch and light the refrigerator with the flame coming form that. The advantage should be the torch wouldn't burn out like the match did. That did work. The pilot light of the refrigerator was lit. The valve was turned to the run position the refrigerator started to cool off inside. I went out for a few minutes to get some groceries. When I came back into the staff house, with an arm full of groceries, there was a little smoke in the room. I knew something was wrong. I checked the refrigerator and saw a gas fuelled stream fire shooting out from its back. There was no fire extinguisher in the building. I knew the closest fire extinguisher was on one of the boats moored at the island's dock. Quickly I ran down the hill to get the extinguisher. Sprinting back up to the staff house I could see more smoke coming out the open door. Braving the increasing level of smoke, I sprayed the plume of fire coming from the fridge and the wall behind it with the extinguisher. White spray and smoke was going everywhere. When the fire was out I found the gas valve, going to the refrigerator and turned it off. That was close. In a few more minutes, the whole place would have gone up in a big fiery explosion. I had to report the fire to the office. Propane refrigerators have been known to catch fire on occasions. The boss was pleased that the staff house had been saved, and that there was minimal fire damage. |
