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The
Fire of May 17th, 2005 |
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Link
to pics of my new garage on my photobucket page.. I built it
myself with the help of many friends, including a building buddy (Thanks
Joel!) Early Tuesday morning (about 1:15) my neighbor Ed got up for his usual midnight snack of cookies and milk. When he looked across the street, he saw our garage on fire! He called me and told me. I looked out the window, and saw the glow of the fire. He called 911 while I went outside. I woke one of our neighbors (Mat and Jodi) and Jaci ran next door and woke the other neighbors (Paul and Paula). Next, we grabbed the hoses (my two and each of theirs- Ed, Mat, Paul, and myself), and for about 10 seconds hit the fire. Nothing. Not even a weakening. At this point the fire was about 3-4 feet through the roof above the garage on the west side. Seeing how we were doing nothing, we started spraying the house. At this point a window must have broken somewhere in the garage, because the fire took off. It roared probably 15-20 feet up in the air, the heat of which forced us back behind a tree. Paul and I managed to keep spraying the house, which probably saved it from going up. The other guys were forced away. The heat was incredible- as long as we hid behind the tree, it was ok, but if you stepped out it was too intense to stay. About this time, the FD (otherwise known as "The Heroes") showed up. As soon as they hit the fire with their umpteen-million-gallon-per-second hoses, the fire died down and a huge gout of steam rose up and out, and the fire died down. They then proceeded to tear things open and out to make sure they got it all. They were done and gone by 3, I went to bed around 4:30 and didn't sleep much. We lost both our trucks (98 Jimmy and 02 Dakota), all my tools, implements, a *ton* of hunting stuff, a slew of motorcycle parts (my bikes sleep in Ed's garage so they were spared), my fridge and freezer, all my ice fishing stuff, and a million odds and ends. Insurance is covering the lot of it, but the paperwork is a nightmare. State Farm has been *wonderful* to deal with- very caring and helpful. So far even the adjuster has destroyed all preconceptions of what insurance people are "supposed" to be like. They are all great. There are many reasons to thank God for this. First, no one was hurt. If God didn't give Ed an insatiable appetite and fast metabolism, with a little more time to burn, the house probably would have gone up. Second, while I was terribly upset by this Tuesday, by Wednesday I had learned a valuable lesson: it's only stuff. It doesn't matter. Sure, it's a bummer, and it's a mess, and it's a ton of work, but no one was hurt and eventually the stuff will be replaced. Finally, God taught us about our friends. We were offered 6 (yes, six!) cars to use that night by our neighbors, and 2 more the next day. Innumerable people have asked how they can help, and our friends and family who can have all been eager to help with the cleaning and rebuilding. God's grace is amazing, and we are truly surrounded by people that love us (both here and out of state- thanks Ben!). It's so incredible. I hope it never happens to you, but if it does I hope you are surrounded by the grace of God and friends the way we are. Anyway, here are the pics:
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