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Lost our home to fireworks!!!! Updated...


jorjen

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If I didn't have bad luck I would have none at all.

 

Just after midnight July 5th. our home burned due to a fire that started next door as a result of improper disposal of spent fireworks. No one was hurt but my wife and I had been in bed since 9:30 and were asleep. One of our dogs woke us up thank God. I am on a knee scooter after ankle surgery and it took everything I had to call CalFire dispatch and get out.

 

The home where it started is a total loss. It will demolished down to the slab and rebuilt. Ours has significant damage and we will be displaced for six to eight months. The garage and family room behind it are a total loss. The rest of the house has holes in the ceiling and smoke damage. The entire roof and trusses will be removed. 

 

We are staying with friends until Monday. Monday our insurer is moving us into a local Motel until we can find a rental home. Of course all this had to happen right now while I am hobbled by the ankle surgeries. Makes a very difficult situation even worse.

 

Anyway, my listening room is pretty much unharmed except for smoke damage/layer of soot. It will be quite some time before I am listening to music again.

 

Also, I had a pair of 1970 Khorn Bass Bins in the garage that are toast. Anyone know the current price of just the Bass Bins?

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Holy cow, id wake up and have a heart attack.

You and yours survived, that all that matters.

 

I believe those KHorn Bass Bins were from the "Signed Collection Series"

Of that series, only three sets were known to exist, now only two.:o

Value? Dam near priceless.......we will back you:emotion-21:

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Good grief Charley Brown, that's not bad luck, that's shyt for luck.

Glad to know your insurer is taking care of you. Smoke damage (smell) can be a bytch to get rid of, so beware.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

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Jordan,

 

Words are inadequate.  Glad you, your wife and the dogs are ok.  

 

I hope your neighbor has excellent insurance.  Be careful what you say to the neighbor.  Your insurance company will be subrgoated to your rights against your neighbor and your neighbor's insurance company.  If you're not familiar with subrogation and would like to know something, shoot me a PM.  

 

Subrogation allows your insurance company to step into your shoes to sue your neighbor to collect the money it paid to compensate you due to your neighbor's negligence regarding the fireworks. Insurance companies suing each other can drag you and your neighbor through a mess for a long time.

 

I feel for you.

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Holy crap.  First and foremost in glad no one was hurt.  Give your dog's an extra treat today.  The only saving grace I can think of at this point is that you're off of work and will have time to deal with what's to come.  Working and trying to handle this would be extremely stressful and this situation is bad enough as it is.  Good luck and keep us posted.

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The most important thing is that your family is safe. things can be replaced, lives cannot. An event like this will certainly put things into perspective. Best of luck with your recovery and dealing with your insurance company.

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When I was actively litigating, social media was something you treated with penicillin.  I'm sure the discovery process -- interrogatories and depositions -- will ask you about social media.  Be extremely careful posting about the fire, and anything related to the fire.

 

If you and your neighbor have the same homeowners' insurance company, the sobrogation possibility goes away.

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1 hour ago, DizRotus said:

I'm sure the discovery process -- interrogatories and depositions -- will ask you about social media.

 

Ah, my line of work. :) I've had more than a few domestic relations cases with Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. posts used as exhibits.

Good to hear you guys are O.K.!

12-years ago, it was getting kinda late one night and I was sitting in our living room watching TV. Behind the TV are couple of double hung windows covered by some curtains. I looked up and saw a faint orange glow next door. First thing I thought was that the neighbors beyond that house were having a bon-fire (common around here). But this looked a bit too close.

I got up and went to the kitchen but still couldn't get a good look. I walked out on the deck and took a peek around some bushes. That's when I saw the neighbors' back side of their house on fire on the outside. Just as I was about to jump over the fence and started banging on doors and windows, another neighbor saw the same thing and started doing it too.

 

I ran back in my house and grabbed a fist full of phone and called 911....."I have a 2-alarm structure fire at **** ***** **. We're working on getting everyone out." (the house was a ranch style about 1,100sq ft.)

 

When all of the EMS crews got there the house was pretty well on it's way. I grabbed my garden hose and started hosing down the side of my house and tree to keep it from spreading. But the fire crews had yet to put enough water on it to put it out! They had used up the pumper truck's 500 gal. on board tank but they weren't getting any pressure from the hydrant! They asked me where the next nearest hydrant was but it was a good 250yds. away. Seeing the truck was already connected to the hydrant and pressurized, you can't just disconnect the 5" line and go down to the next hydrant. You have to get rid of all that pressure first. So, they did out of the snorkel and went to work on the hose couplers. When they did they discovered that there was a big kink in the 5" line cutting off all of the flow. This all took about 15-minutes and the house interior was toast and the back had a huge hole in it. So, I stayed out there to console the family and make sure my house wasn't the next victim.

 

What I didn't realize was the T-shirt I was wearing "C.F.D." on the back and our city's logo on the front (Cincinnati Fire Department). I was getting some oddball weird looks from some of the firemen and I actually got asked by their captain who I was. I told them my father is a retired ATO for the CFD (Ariel Truck Operator).

 

Always wondered if the insurance company could sue EMS for incompetence.

 

The cause of the fire was they cooked with their charcoal BBQ earlier that night and, later, the wife took the hot coals out of the BBQ and put them into a plastic/rubber garbage can up against the house.

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+100 that you and yours are okay

 

7 hours ago, jorjen said:

except for smoke damage/layer of soot.

 

Clean and clean it now.

The smoke can / will be acidic and will mess up the finishes and RUST metals. I learned this the hard way when I had a very small fire in my machine shop. Very thick smoke, fire put out, ventilated and went back to work. Months later I had a thin layer of rust everywhere. 

 

smoke residue is the curse that keeps on giving after a fire.

 

 

Again, sorry that you're going through this, glad you're okay. 

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1 minute ago, Mighty Favog said:

 

I was just thinking about laser optical pick-ups for CD/DVD players.

I would get a specialist in for advice. A lot of problems might not show up for many months. The insurance companies will do all they can to not pay by not informing the customer about the long term damage. They might roll around on the floor kicking and screaming, better them doing that now than me doing that later. 

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So sorry to hear this!  You saved the important "stuff" which is your life but it is still a miserable feeling.  It will take time to process it all.  

 

Take pictures of everything you can!!  You can be surprised by what is still ok and what is not.  The heat pump that wasn't even close winds up getting damaged because of a short or surge for example but insurance doesn't pay because they try to claim it failed later so it was unrelated.  

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Well that sucks.

 

Sincere best wishes that this is not a huge financial disaster.  If finances are not a tremendous worry, then the logistical stuff can actually be a blessing in disguise, in terms of forcing new routines and the satisfaction gained from gracefully rolling with the punches that life throws your way.  As others mentioned, the irreplaceable stuff (you, your family, and your heroic dog) came through unscathed.  Be strong, stay positive.  

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So sorry to hear this. As everyone else has said, you're OK and that is what is important. PIA doesn't begin to cover what this does to your life for a while. Still, this may be an opportunity to reevaluate life and stuff or lack there of. Again, glad you're ok.

 

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same as all posting ahead of me - so sorry to hear such news, and at the same time, so glad that you got out alive & with your loved ones.  everything else is icing on the cake.

I can only imagine the 'overhead' involved dealing with your insurance & your neighbor's.

 

I echo sentiments of all - best of luck to you, and if there is a need we can help with, all you gotta do is ask.

 

-John

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