House fire

A neighbor had a serious house fire.  We were awakened by fire engines at about two in the morning.   We got on the golf cart, and got to the house in about four minutes.   He had some people staying at his house who used a charcoal grill around 9pm, and then left.   Apparently a charcoal landed on the deck and ignited.   When we got there the entire roof was on fire, the deck was almost gone, and the power lines were down.  We told the officer the name of the owner, as fortunately nobody was in the house, and my wife tried to call two times, but no answer.

The fire department did a good job, and saved the house, but the roof was gone, and surprisingly the interior was not that charred as the fire ran along the exterior of the house and ran into the roof.  I feel terrible for the owner because he was suppose to rent it July 1st, so when the fire marshall got done, he had a full crew on rebuilding his home.   The insurance folks wanted to get back to him in two weeks, and he said he could not wait and has rebuilt the walls and has most of the roof done.  Nobody got hurt, but do not be fooled that you will ever be made whole after a disaster.   He is lucky nobody was in the home.

He is letting the tenant stay at his farm with their two children until the house gets repaired.......I thought that was crazy, but he thinks he can fix this pretty quick and does not want to lose a tenant who spends the summer in this home every year.

Glad no one was home.

When we first came up to the house, we knew he had people who rented the house for the day because we had seen the cars so we grabbed one of the sheriff deputies and asked him if he had made sure there were no cars anywhere. He assured us that the yard was empty of any cars when the fire engine arrived. It is a sick feeling when you come onto a fire and think people may be inside. This was an all volunteer force, and they did as good of a job as I have seen on saving that house. The owner had done so much work on the house in the last three years sinking probably more money in it than it is worth, so he will get a screwing from the insurance company, but he is a farmer, and literally there were twenty people from the community helping him the next day. I am just too sick to help, but I was so proud of the response and people helping. It gives you a very good feeling about community.