kellinator (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kellinator) wrote2004-11-10 11:08 am
kellinator) wrote2004-11-10 11:08 am
Holy shit.
I just got a phone call from my mom. She started off with "well, we've had a bit of a catastrophe at home..."
My family has a storage shed, umm, probably less than a hundred feet from the house. Yesterday my dad was working in his woodshop over at the barn (I told you guys I won the Redneck Olympics) and heard a popping noise. At first he thought it was someone shooting (another sign of how rural our homestead is; gunshots are no cause for alarm because they probably just mean that someone's hunting or target shooting), but he went over to the house and the shed was on fire. (EDIT: We don't know yet how it started, but I suspect faulty wiring, perhaps in my dad's old workshop in the shed.) He managed to move his truck, which was very close to the flames and has substantial damage, and burned his hand on the steering wheel in the process (not severely, thank God). He tried to move my brother's car but the flames were already underneath it so thank God he didn't try harder. As it was Dad had to keep the leaves and bushes wet to keep the house from catching on fire. Some neighbors apparently saw and came to help and someone called the Rescue Squad (what passes for fire coverage in our neck of the woods). Mom says it's still smouldering this morning.
Everything that was in the shed is gone. All they've found of my brother's dirt bike was a tiny piece of plastic. I'm really glad my dad had moved most of his woodworking stuff over to the barn.
Plus, my brother's brand-new cherry-red Mustang (he got it so recently that I haven't even seen it) is gone. Mom says he's taking the loss of it (and his dirt bike) very well. At least the Mustang was insured, as was most of the stuff in the shed. I was the lucky one in the family; all I had in there (that I can remember, anyway, and if you can't remember it you're not gonna miss it) was a crate of books from my rabid romance-collecting days which I was probably never going to read anyway. Though the selfish part of my brain does mourn the out-of-print Carla Kelly Regency romances that were in there. I would have liked to have read those. And there were a fair number of family heirlooms that Mom mentioned... things like my great-grandmother's side saddle. (Not that I'd ever seen it. We're packrats.)
We're okay. No one was hurt (well, except Dad's hand, but Mom says it didn't require treatment), and the house is okay. If Dad hadn't been home, we'd have lost everything. If Dad had tried to move Brad's car and been overcome, we'd have lost more than everything. We're damn lucky that it was the shed instead of the house:
Mom: The stuff that we lost, we can do without.
Me: We were doing without it already. That's why it was in the shed.
We were damn lucky. The thing that's freaking me out is how close we came to being damn unlucky.
My family has a storage shed, umm, probably less than a hundred feet from the house. Yesterday my dad was working in his woodshop over at the barn (I told you guys I won the Redneck Olympics) and heard a popping noise. At first he thought it was someone shooting (another sign of how rural our homestead is; gunshots are no cause for alarm because they probably just mean that someone's hunting or target shooting), but he went over to the house and the shed was on fire. (EDIT: We don't know yet how it started, but I suspect faulty wiring, perhaps in my dad's old workshop in the shed.) He managed to move his truck, which was very close to the flames and has substantial damage, and burned his hand on the steering wheel in the process (not severely, thank God). He tried to move my brother's car but the flames were already underneath it so thank God he didn't try harder. As it was Dad had to keep the leaves and bushes wet to keep the house from catching on fire. Some neighbors apparently saw and came to help and someone called the Rescue Squad (what passes for fire coverage in our neck of the woods). Mom says it's still smouldering this morning.
Everything that was in the shed is gone. All they've found of my brother's dirt bike was a tiny piece of plastic. I'm really glad my dad had moved most of his woodworking stuff over to the barn.
Plus, my brother's brand-new cherry-red Mustang (he got it so recently that I haven't even seen it) is gone. Mom says he's taking the loss of it (and his dirt bike) very well. At least the Mustang was insured, as was most of the stuff in the shed. I was the lucky one in the family; all I had in there (that I can remember, anyway, and if you can't remember it you're not gonna miss it) was a crate of books from my rabid romance-collecting days which I was probably never going to read anyway. Though the selfish part of my brain does mourn the out-of-print Carla Kelly Regency romances that were in there. I would have liked to have read those. And there were a fair number of family heirlooms that Mom mentioned... things like my great-grandmother's side saddle. (Not that I'd ever seen it. We're packrats.)
We're okay. No one was hurt (well, except Dad's hand, but Mom says it didn't require treatment), and the house is okay. If Dad hadn't been home, we'd have lost everything. If Dad had tried to move Brad's car and been overcome, we'd have lost more than everything. We're damn lucky that it was the shed instead of the house:
Mom: The stuff that we lost, we can do without.
Me: We were doing without it already. That's why it was in the shed.
We were damn lucky. The thing that's freaking me out is how close we came to being damn unlucky.
no subject
no subject
Any idea how it started? Will homeowner's insurance cover the loss of the motorbike and anything else of financial value that was lost?
no subject
Mom said the dirt bike wasn't insured on its own, but it might be covered by homeowners, I'm not sure. She did tell me to try and figure out how much the books were worth (some of them were out of print and actually worth a bit).
Thanks for your kind words. We are very lucky.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I'm so glad to hear that your family is OK and relatively unscathed. Do they know how the fire started?
no subject
We're not sure yet how it started. I suspect faulty wiring.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
give it a few days for the shock to wear off. I'm so thankful there were no serious injuries.
no subject
no subject
A couple of times, when we cover a controlled burn of abandoned buildings, they let us stand in the house while they set fire to it. Most recent one, I stood in the kitchen while they set the living room on fire, and it was an experience you don't forget. It makes you feel creeped out all the time, that the sane, normal world in which you live can be so easily turned upside down into chaos.
*hugs*
no subject
Thank you. *hugs*
no subject
I'm glad to hear everyone is fine. *hug*
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I'm glad no one was seriously hurt. Fire is my second biggest fear. :(
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Glad to hear that only stuff was lost, though.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Thank goodness everyone was okay and it didn't spread!
no subject
no subject
Glad your family managed to escape practically unscathed from the fire (and that it didn't spread to the house). *phew*
Hopefully insurance will pick up the cost of the major stuff that got burned, but at least in the end it was just stuff (although my wife would have shed a tear for the Mustang *small smile*).
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
HUGZ!
no subject
Your mom's given to understatement, isn't she?
no subject
*huggations*
no subject
*hugs*