air filter black

[yawnmoth]

This morning, I awoke to an odd smell. I blew my nose and inadvertently noticed that that which came out was black. Thinking it was the fan I have by my bed, I concluded that that was to blame - that it had somehow gone bad.

An hour later, the odd smell is still there. It's possible maybe I'm just smelling remnants of whatever it was in my nose but I dunno.

I checked the air filter and although it has very few clumps of dust on it it is quite black (as I recall, it was a white air filter).

Any ideas as to what the problem might (or might have) been?

[Joseph Meehan]

I would check around and look for something electrical that is not working. It sure sounds like something went bad overnight.

[Goedjn]

First guess is that some flame-powered device in your house is trying to kill you by filling the house with carbon monoxide and soot.

If you don't have a flame-powered device, then the next most likely thing is a serious mold/mildew bloom.

[mm]

When I worked in a steel mill disassembling a big steel chimney (I think it was) filled with a pattern of bricks that made 200 little chimneys, 80 feet high, at the end of the day the mucus that came out of my nose was pink, even though I wore a respirator all the time.

I had a neighbor whose smoke alarm kept going off, so they took it to be repaired. While it was gone, they should have gotten another one, but didn't. So while it was gone, the analog clock on the stove started a fire that burnt out the whole kitchen. The original smoke alarm was never broken and was actually detecting minute products of combustion, for days or weeks before the fire broke out.

So, do you have a good smoke alarm near your bed? I guess you should track this down today. You should get your nose up close and personal to every thing that runs on electricity, and every receptacle. If your nose is dulled by smelling this all night, bring in someone else.

That fire could have burned the whole house down, not just the kitchen. And those people didn't have black mucus, afaik.

[yawnmoth]

As it's turned out, there was a fire in the apartment next to me (I live in an apartment, btw). Allegedly a small fire, but enough to put a fair amount of smoke into my apartment.

I'm not sure what the cause of the fire was (it started and stopped while the people living there were at work or something) but an investigation is supposed to be under way.

There's a pile of ash probably more than a foot wide and maybe an inch or two tall (I took a few pictures) outside of that appartment, although I'm not sure much can be gleaned from that...

[mm]

It's strange at the very least. Maybe it was a person who spontaneously disintegrated. I've seen movies about that. There is usually some dust left behind, or ash. Maybe the fire was spontaneous gerbil combustion. That wouldn't last long.

[Al Bundy]

mm wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Who the hell takes a smoke alarm to be repaired?

[mm]

You know, you're right. That may be a flaw in the story. Perhaps they removed it and didn't want to admit they *didn't* do anything worthwhile afterwards. Maybe they were afraid insurance wouldn't pay if they said the truth. OTOH, the story about the alarm going off for days or weeks before the fire works against them. If any of this would have an effect on recovering from insurance, I don't know. After all, I would think more than half of house fires are caused by mistakes or negligence by the homeowner or his family. I thought insurance still paid. Maybe it does, but this homeowner wasn't sure.

I don't think I talked to him directly. A mutual neighbor must have told me the story. But it's quite a detailed story to have been made up from nothing. I think the stove was put out for the trash, with the obviously burned out analog clock.

[Tekkie®]

yawnmoth posted for all of us... I don't top post - see either inline or at bottom.

Maybe it's cremains? With the price of scrap metal going up who knows what you could get for it.