Ever get woken up by a fire trucks in front of youtr house and heavy burning smells in the house

[LostinVA]

Well, we did about an hour ago. I woke up and was like, "wtf?" Woke up Haruka who said, "There are TWO trucks outside." We fumbled around grabbing our clothes and my glasses and ran downstairs. We ran downstairs and Haruka looks out the window and shriek's,"John's house is on fire!!!"

His house was totally ablaze, about 50 feet from ours. And we have 40 mph winds right now.

Haruka's calling the property owners and I ran outside to talk to a fireman -- by this time, there were about 10 trucks and some tankers. The elderly man in the house was JUST able to get out of his bedroom, which was engulfed in flames. A woodstove he installed himself was the culprit. The fire was just put out, the house is gone, and our basement has about 9" of water in from from the hose runoff. They were able to save our house and cars. There are literally about 40 different trucks and tankers outsdie, and guys with chainsaws taking down trees.

Jesus Christ.

[Fleshdancer]

1. Holy crap!

I'm glad John was able to escape safely. Are you and Haruka riding the adrenaline wave right now? That's some scare sh*t right there! I'm so glad the two of you are ok.

[LostinVA]

2. Oh yeah -- major adrenaline was ripping through me

It's starting to go away now. But, considering they are HUGE lights set up outside, and at least 10+ trucks are here, and our front lawn is beibg used for a staging area, sleep is far away.

[Droopy]

3. I'm glad you all are alright

Life throws a curve ball at you sometimes. I'm glad you were able to let bit go by. I wish you peace and well being.

[LostinVA]

5. We're just hoping our cars are okay

We share a driveway and the cars were only about 20' from the house. We can't get over there to check them out.

[LostinVA]

4. Funny Update

We have a real antique outhouse in the backyard. It's purely decorative. There's no hole or anything underneath. We just watched a fireman go in there, and spend a long time in there.

Great.

[lligrd]

7. LOL Did He Bring His Hose? nt

[LostinVA]

11. Pev

[lligrd]

12. Couldn't Help Myself

and still laughing. Not sure what is funnier though, the fireman and the hose or having a non functioning outhouse.

Dig a hole for godsake. :rofl:

[LostinVA]

13. The previous people put it out there

I said to Haruka,"He's been in there too long to just be peeing..

Haruka: "You can see his little headlamp in there."

[lligrd]

14. ROFL

Hey even Firemen deserve breaks. :rofl:

[Maine-ah]

21. I bet he had his own adrenaline rush.....

some people need that release after a very stressful situation. :evilgrin:

[skater314159]

49. ...

:rofl:

You should win an award for this series of "outhouse posts"!

:rofl:

[Droopy]

8. Was he sexy??

We all know that firemen are sexy now days. Women just can't help but fall all over them.

[LostinVA]

9. There are also some cute firewomen out there

[Fleshdancer]

17. seriously? a "decorative" outhouse???

that's weird

[LostinVA]

18. It's a real outhouse the previous tenants bought at an estate sale

But, there's no hole under the hole.

[mtnester]

19. You know he did #2 In there don't you?

bleach bleach bleach

Is your neighbor OK? Does he have a place to stay?

Sigh...now comes the insurance nightmare....glad everyone is OK.

[LostinVA]

20. Yes -- ick

We just saw him walking around the shell of the house with the Fire Chief, so he's physically okay. And, we know he didn't ahve any pets who were caught in the fire.

Our back yard is ruined -- it's under inches of water.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

27. Good of them to flush your outhouse

after they used it.

:rofl:

but mostly, it's good that all are safe.

:hi:

[skater314159]

50. So it's a real, yet ornamental, outhouse?

Wow!

I am just enjoying the Dada-esque nature of an real, yet ornamental, outhouse being visited by a fireman with a spelunker's light. It sounds like something from Green Acres or something.

[LostinVA]

51. Yep -- it was once actually an outhouse

Now it just sits there, with no latrine hole underneath.

We didn't buy it. It was here when we moved in.

It actually fits in with the property. It was two (now one) 100+ year old houses with a few barns around.

[DS1]

36. There's no TP in there, is there

:cry:

[LostinVA]

42. Not even newspaper

[lligrd]

6. So Glad Both Of You And Your Neighbor Are Ok

Jheesh, what a thing to wake up to. Trauma like that always sets my adrenaline into overkill and seems to take forever to get over.

[LostinVA]

10. Thanks -- it's indeed crazy

We went to bed late AND there was rge time change, so we've had about two hours of sleep. We're oddly wired and exhausted at the same time.

[Heidi]

15. How awful. I'm glad you're both okay.

How is your neighbor holdin' up? :pals:

[LostinVA]

16. We haven't seen him, but we were told he was okay

He's in his 80's.

[Horse with no Name]

22. OMG how awful

A good friend of mine's house burned down and they lost everything. When she was able to talk about a year or more down the road, she said something that was so incredibly sad.
She said that you just can't believe what it is like to lose absolutely everything. She said she was numb, but the next morning when she was at the hotel, she realized she didn't even own a toothbrush anymore.:(
She actually carried on and on about the toothbrush and the symbolism of it.
So give John a big hug and buy him a toothbrush. I'll send my good thoughts that way.

[LostinVA]

23. He just left a few minutes ago

There's still a cop here because a live wire is draped across the hood of my car, but the power company should be here any minute to take care of that.

I was thinking about how he lost everything -- and, he's in his 80's.

[yellowdogintexas]

28. my mom lost everything in a fire about 20 years ago. She had all sorts of

family photos and memorabilia, inherited antiques from both sides of her family, our wedding gowns, a brazillion books, a wonderful piano (she never got over grieving for her piano)

and it was a neat old 1920's Craftsman style house too.

she made the same comments about losing everything and not having a toothbrush. She did a very successful startover though ... I hope your neighbor has family to go to or a place to live somewhere. What an awful thing to have to deal with at his age.

It was painful for all of us, to see our history go up in smoke. My mom was not at home, and it was a wiring thing that started the fire, we think.

A neighbor saved a table and a very old piece of family silver that happened to be right by the front door and he broke in and pulled it out. One set of bedroom furniture and some odds and ends were in the room farthest from the source and were also saved. I have the table and the silver piece both are very old and we are glad we have them

[quadriga]

24. That is horrible!

Did he leave a fire in the woodstove and leave? Good lesson, thanks, we sometimes leave the house with a fire burning in the woodstove. Probably won't anymore.

[LostinVA]

25. He left it burning and went to bed

[Guava Jelly]

26. Well that is a horrible way to start a sunday.

I am glad everyone is safe.
You just got to love the Fireman :toast:

[leftofthedial]

29. I'm so sorry for your neighbor! That is scary!

I'm also sorry for the water in your basement.

Good luck to your neighbor and to you during the cleanup.

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

30. BTDT, that is scary!

I'm happy everyone is okay, especially John. Our neighbor's house was gutted by a fire on Memorial Day several years ago, and it was a place that had been passed through four generations. It's scary to have something like that happen, especially in the middle of the night. Our reaction was a lot like Haruka's...just disbelief, and sheer terror. Bobbi (my neighbor) was absolutely in shock. She had just split from her husband, and lived there with her daughter, though, luckily, they had stayed at a relative's house that night. She just stood there and looked at the burned-out house, blankly, saying over and over, "We have so many memories in there." Then the realization came of how much she'd lost..."OMG...the pictures, our books, my daughter's bed, all my papers...," and she just sat there and quietly sobbed. "But we're covered. And we're alive."

[LostinVA]

52. I know -- I can't imagine what John's going through

He's been living on this property for years. Outside the house are drawers filled with burnt pictures, books, etc.

[NMDemDist2]

31. a couple times

I got burnt out of not one, but two apartments in San Francisco. both in the same building.

my clothes smelled of smoke for weeks...

glad everyone is safe but geez, 80 is a hell of a time to have to start over

:hug:

[LostinVA]

53. Our throats are bothering us today from all the smoke

Mine more than Haruka's, but she's a smoker, so I think her lungs can handle it better.

John is at least lucky that he's not living on a fixed income. Lots of elderly people would be even worse off.

:hug:

[Shakespeare]

32. OMG--I'm so glad you two are okay!

And also glad they were able to keep your house from catching.

That's a horrific thing to be awakened by. :scared: :hug: :loveya:

[LostinVA]

54. We were so lucky

They didn't even wet down our roof, despite the high winds. Our landlord was quite pissed that they didn't wet down our roof or the roofs of his barns.

:hug:

[flvegan]

33. Damn. I'm glad you kids and your stuff are all okay.

Does your neighbor have any family or friends to stay with/go to?

[LostinVA]

55. I know he has friends up here

His son lives in TX, but he definitely has friends up here.

Our pets were so well-behaved during the whole ordeal. Mick just sat in his crate chewing on a toy, and Ginsberg, the cat, just watched all the action through the living room window.

[Gormy Cuss]

34. Scary, isn't it?

When I was about age 6-8 I watched the triple decker across the yard from our tiny little house explode in flames, one floor at a time. I remember feeling the heat on our windowpanes and seeing lots of panicky adults. There were many house fires in my nbhd, only a few fatal ones though. Firefighters are the greatest.

[LostinVA]

41. It was VERY scary -- especially since it was so close

We just walked around what's left of the house -- not much.

[Midlodemocrat]

35. OMG!! So glad you guys are okay. How scary!!!

:hug:

[LostinVA]

57. It was so scary

When we smelled the smoke, we thought our house was on fire. Our house, an old wooden farmhouse, would go up like a match. John has the same kind of house, just smaller.

Our adrenaline was racing for quite awhile. I haven't slept at all yet. Haruka napped a bit this morning.

[Bassic]

37. Holy shit!

This is clearly not something I would ever want to wake up to.....

[LostinVA]

58. We hope to never wake up to that again

[Haole Girl]

38. OMG!

That is so scary! Just the other day, a man from VT told me about wood burning stoves & how fires destroy at least one home a year in his neighborhood. :scared:

I'm so glad you two are ok!!

:loveya: :hi:

[LostinVA]

59. We saw the pipe he used for the stove

It was the kind used for dryer vents.

:loveya:

[LeftyMom]

39. Back when I was managing an apartment building

the tenant two doors down left for a picnic and apparently didn't turn the stove off all the way.

The fire damage itself was confined to the kitchen, but the smoke ruined pretty much everything she owned, and we had to move the upstairs neighbors as well, since until the lower apartment was gutted the smoke smell upstairs was unbelievably strong.

[LostinVA]

60. You can still smell it a bit outside

He got lucky. The woodstove was installed upstairs. He had fallen asleep downstairs watching TV. Had he gone to bed upstairs, he wouldn't have made it out.

[Fleshdancer]

40. how's John doing?

Does he have family to stay with?

I imagine the destruction looks 10 times worse in the daylight. :(

[LostinVA]

43. He has friends to stay with, and the Red Cross offered him vouchers for a hotel room

and food for a few days. Which he refused.

He seems to be hiding out, literally. He apparently just put the wood stove in his upstairs bedroom using a single-layer dryer vent pipe.

[GreenPartyVoter]

44. No, but I fear it since none of my smoke detectors work and I live in a tinderbox (re: trailer)

Glad your neighbor and your own home are ok. I hope he was insured. :(

[LostinVA]

61. I hope he was insured, too

We're heading out this week to get smoke detectors. We live in a tinderbox, too. Except our tinderbox is a wooden farm house. Same kind of house John had.

[Ptah]

45. No, that never happened to me.

I'm glad you and Haruka are ok.

[LostinVA]

62. It's amazing our house didn't burn

And that he made it out.

[GardeningGal]

46. Wow - I'm glad you're both safe along with your animals.

Who reported the fire?

[LostinVA]

47. The gentleman whose house burned down

He woke up and the house was already engulfed in flames. When I saw the house, and how bad the flames were, I thought to myself," There's no way he made it out alive."

I'm glad he did.

[skater314159]

48. Not YOUR house?

Yeah, that happened when I was staying at my dad's one time when I was in college... I was crashing on the couch, and my dad wandered through the living room in his bathrobe mumbling something.

I just rolled over and was about to go back to sleep when I heard the sound of him opening the front door and yell "HOLY FUCK! GET UP THE (neighbors)' HOUSE IS ON FIRE!".

I woke up fast. That sucks... was everyone ok? Does the guy have a place to go? Did you call Red Cross? If you call Red Cross, they can help with emergency shelter, food, clothing, counseling, etc.

[LostinVA]

63. Everyone was okay

Red Cross offered him help, but apparently he told them to fuck off (his words). I know he has friends close by, though.

[skater314159]

66. Well, the Red Cross people can deal with that...

... they deal with lots of people in crisis situations, and well, they get told that a LOT.

I'm glad he has friends nearby.

Hope all else is going well for you guys!

[GOPisEvil]

56. I once dreamed that someone was pounding on my window.

I then sort of woke up and saw red lights and heard an engine running. It took me a few minutes to put things together. Red lights...engine running...pounding on windows...FIRE!!!! I went outside to join my neighbors watch the fire department put out a brush fire in the dry creek behind our houses.

Yours was much scarier. Good thing you neighbor has someplace to stay. Sad that he lost everything.

[LostinVA]

64. I've never seen so many fire trucks in my life

There were departments from three towns here, plus the ambulances, police, etc.

I hope he gets everything pulled together okay eventually. He's a nice guy. Helped me push my car out from the snow once.

[uppityperson]

65. Was woken by a burning derailed train outside my house once.

I'm glad no one got hurt at your neighbor's house. I was woken about 4 am once by a state trooper with a burning derailed train across the street. "We don't think it'll explode, but you better leave, NOW!" Pants, sweater, boots, out the door. Firefighters pumped water on the fire since railroad people said it was ok. Turned out to be burning sulfur (?) which exploded out globs of sulfuric acid on the firefighters. They weren't happy. They let me back in at midnight.

It can be wild and am glad no one got hurt at your place.