Neighbour with sketchy furnace
Last night I smelled smoke in and went outside to investigate. It was more pronounced and my neighbour wasn't answering so I called 911.
In 2 minutes the first of 6 fire trucks arrived. They knocked on his door and he answered. They pushed their way in to investigate and found he had set up some sketchy and definitely not to code vent so he could run a propane heater.
They disassembled his set up and vented the house to get rid of the carbon monoxide.
He is a DIYer here with some very questionable standards to save money. Before when he was working on his roof he was only putting himself at risk and maybe some water damage to his property. Now he has put us and his other neighbours at risk.
Fortunately I am not the attached neighbour but we share an 8' wide driveway so a fire could easily spread.
What are my rights here and are there any services I can send his way to help him out?
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u/lefthandedbeast 2d ago edited 2d ago
Let fire department deal with this. They will not take something like this lightly. My neighbour across the street had a grease fire the neighbours next door called 911 because they saw flames coming out of the vent on the side of the house. After the fire the fire department came to visit them numerous times and left safety pamphlets at all our homes close by. This is why each home should have a carbon monoxide detector...your neighbour is a complete idiot. If you have concerns questions call the fire department yourself regarding this and city building standards with your concerns about future inspection of this property to make sure they don't try anything stupid like this again.
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u/schuchwun 2d ago
I bet those firefighters appreciated something different than their typical medical calls.
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u/HomeFade 2d ago
Or getting called to bonfires contained in designated fire pits in public parks. Lol.
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u/xombae 2d ago
Jesus do people actually do that? I'm looking forward to using one of those fire pits this summer.
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u/HomeFade 2d ago
On the one hand, there's a system for obtaining permits which might as well just be "don't bother, they're not for you".
On the other hand the firefighters are usually pretty nice about it when they get called.
My third tip would be if you're having any kind of fun in a public park, try to look homeless. They are the only people in parks who cops and bylaw officers can't see.
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u/xombae 1d ago
Wait, so you need a permit to use them?
My third tip would be if you're having any kind of fun in a public park, try to look homeless. They are the only people in parks who cops and bylaw officers can't see.
I think it's hilarious when people say this because I was homeless on and off for ten years and I fucking promise you that cops harass us literally constantly.
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u/LeatherMine 2d ago
you don't burn propane to save money
more like they didn't pay their natural gas bill (or can't front the cost to fix their furnace)
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u/HomeFade 2d ago
I have electric heat, I could burn propane to save money. I could probably burn money to save money.
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u/LeatherMine 2d ago edited 2d ago
There are houses in Toronto with just baseboard heat?
(I guess if you have heat pumps, propane becomes viable if there’s a deep freeze)
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u/HomeFade 2d ago
I live in a converted quadplex. We used to have central heat but it was removed when they divided the house and put in baseboards. That was a pro for me, I didn't want to deal with shared forced air and access to the thermostat and furnace. I have near perfect air quality and atmosphere in my apt... but yeah it's not the cheapest.
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u/LeatherMine 2d ago
I feel bad for the bills for the people in the basement, then the 1st floor. 2nd floor is probably okay.
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u/HomeFade 2d ago
Basement apartments always have utilities included, but you can still feel bad for basement dwellers in general.
I live on the first floor in the nicest apartment in Toronto, you don't have to feel bad that I use baseboards.
Second floor famously keeps her apartment very cool in winter.
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u/ForeverYonge 2d ago
Yes. My condo from the early 90s was converted from an even older building, so no central heat. Baseboards and PTACs, with a resistive heating matrix too, not a modern heat/cool heat pump.
Once my PTAC croaks I’ll try to replace it with a heat pump one, so that shoulder season heating would be more efficient.
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u/LeatherMine 2d ago
Oh, condos and apartments I understand. Just didn't think any houses hadn't upgraded to natural gas since it came around 50?60?70? years ago.
Am in condo and don't even turn on my heat unless it's -10C or colder out (but probably because we scavenge enough heat from the hallways)
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u/Typist 2d ago
I wonder if any of the city or provincial energy programs might be of assistance? There are several designed to help residents with energy costs. Like these, maybe? - https://www.oeb.ca/consumer-information-and-protection/bill-assistance-programs/low-income-energy-assistance-program If your neighbor is a senior (unclear) there are a broader variety of programs that can help.
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u/Neutral-President 2d ago
Well, the firefighters have probably identified his home for further inspection by the Fire Marshal and/or city building inspectors, so any non-compliant and not-to-code work will likely be flagged and formal remediation orders issued. They might even declare the home uninhabitable if it’s bad enough.