My father always told me that if you are smoking a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, that you must not do it around anything that contains fuel.
He said it was just a recipe for disaster.
During my life, I never forgot this, and whenever I was working on a car, I made sure to not let anyone smoke in the garage. I really thought this was something that everyone knew. You didn’t smoke around anything that was flammable, and that included Heating and A/C units. I never thought I would have a chance to tell a professional Heating and A/C business this, but the day finally came. I was upstairs working in my office while the Heating and A/C technician was working on our oil furnace. I thought I heard a strange noise, but I didn’t give it much thought at first. It wasn’t until I thought I detected the faint odor of smoke, that I began to panic. I ran to the door and went into the basement. The Heating and A/C tech was stomping out some papers with a wide-eyed look on his face. He apologized to me and said he had already called his Heating and A/C boss for assistance. He had been smoking and by some freak accident, the ashes got into the oil furnace catching the wiring on fire. He promised that if the oil furnace wasn’t able to be fixed, the Heating and A/C contractor would purchase a brand new oil furnace for me. I was wondering if I should call our homeowners insurance, just in case they reneged on this promise. They could fight the Heating and A/C company for me. I figured I may as well wait for the owner of the Heating and A/C contractor to show up, and talk to me about our oil furnace.