Yesterday, while walking our dog, the thermostat kicked in (hadn't worked in a week). I returned home to smoke filled, toxic smelling house and called the FD. Thank goodness I didn't burn the place down and yes, I'm feeling very stupid. I'd gotten lazy about keeping furnace grate clear since it wasn't kicking on when I wanted to use it. Just brought in a small electric heater and forgot about it. Now I have a terrible smell and I'm trying to get an idea how difficult this is to clean or have cleaned. There's probably about a tennis ball size quantity melted on unit. Anyone else familiar with this kind of mess? FYI, I found this advice on yahoo but am reluctant to start pulling on anything without knowing what I'm doing. Much thanks in advance for any input. "The furnace still works but she'll have to scrape off the melted plastic. Take off the floor grill. Remove the rectangle liner. It lifts out. Then she can access the heat exchanger. Use a putty knife to scrape it and try to catch the plastic before it falls to the bottom. There is only a narrow opening around the heat exchanger so she may have to use her arm to fit down in it to clean. There will be dust and dirt at the bottom, even coins, bobby pins, you name it, that she can remove while reaching in there. Good luck."
