Putting Out Fires

The days after the fire were spent putting out fires of another nature . For every issue that came up , and was settled , a new one was born . Seemed never ending at the time . First order of business was shelter . As I mentioned before Red Cross set us up for 3 nights , at a local motel .

So before anything else was done we needed to secure shelter . We had relatives in the area , that I'm sure , we could have stayed with , but my thought on house guests is ... they are like fish , after a few days they start to sink . Did not want to be a fish .

Just by coincidence , an elderly neighbor about a mile down the road from us , was moving her mobile home off her lot to make room for a new double wide . The mobile home , ( to be referred to as trailer form this point on ) was roughly 40 years old . Not pretty , but in livable condition . Which was more than we currently had . The only problem was her new home wasn't scheduled to be delivered for about 4 weeks , and she was just moving the trailer off to the side while her lot was being ready for the new double wide . In the mean time she still needed it to live in . OK , not a big deal , we bought it any way . We needed to get our lot ready before we could move the trailer there anyway . In the meantime we needed a roof .

We luckily found a travel trailer , ( not pretty either but livable ,and cheap ) . Since we didn't have the electric restore on our lot , we decided to move into a campground about 8 miles away .

This was to be a temporary move 2 weeks at the most . Yeah right , who was I kidding ? Two weeks turned into more like 8 . At the time of our fire , new home construction in our area , was at it's peak . Most electricians and plumbers were over booked . Getting one to come out was going to be 4-6 weeks .

We weren't strangers to camping , so the first 2 weeks or so it was almost fun , sort of like a camping trip . Then it started to turn ugly . The camping trip that wouldn't end . Usually after a camping trip I couldn't wait to get home , to get back to normal . I could only do abnormal for short periods of time . I wanted to sleep in my own bed , cook on a real stove , take a real shower , you know , normal stuff . Of course there was no home anymore , so there was nothing to go back to , no getting back to normal . Took a while for this to sink in .

About four weeks into this ordeal , the electrician came out , they set up a temporary electric service . Now this had to be inspected , by a state certified inspector .. another week and a half of waiting . Once it passed inspection the electric company could come out and connect the meter and power to the box . More waiting . Patience has never been one of my better virtues , I want everything yesterday .

Meanwhile during this "waiting stage " , we started shifting through the rubble of what was once our home , in an effort to salvage some of what was left of our "old" life . Between the smoke , heat, and water damage there wasn't much left . The heat from the fire was so intense that it melted our above ground pool , just our luck the water ran away from the house instead of toward it .
The origin design of the house was a three bedroom brick rancher , which sometime before we bought it , the owners had added a family room and attached garage ( probably didn't get any permits for that either ) . When they did this addition , the outer brick wall was left in place and finished with drywall . This was unknown to us until after the fire . It was determined that the point of origin of the fire was in the garage . The garage , family room and about half of the roof of the main section of the house was totally gone by the time the fire departments arrived . I am guessing the brick wall slowed the fire down a bit , keeping it from totally destroying the main section of the house .
Anything that was in garage and family room was completely gone ... recognizable . Which believe it or not turned out to be a blessing . Finding items that are recognizable , and half burnt , or broken is extremely depressing . What we were able to recover , was from the main area of the house . Fire is amazing , I had shelves with nick -knacks , and two items side by side , one would look like a piece of charcoal , and the other would look like you had just placed it there . I found this to be very odd . We boxed everything up , shoved it in the trailer and went on to the next task .

After about 7 weeks , the electric was finally restored and we were able to move the camper home . We still didn't have water restored to the site , this to , turned into a nightmare . Turns out that the original owner of our old house ( he was also the builder ) didn't get any permits when he built . This wasn't an unusual practice in this area back in the 60's . The lot it's self , had been part of his wife's parents farm . So when he decided to build , that's just what he did , he built . We knew where the septic tank was , and thought we knew where the well was , notice I said thought . We were way off . The original owner had passed away , his wife was still living but she had always been a bit dingy , so she wasn't any help . There were no records of a septic system or well filed with the state , so they were no help . I was eventually able to locate the guy who installed the well and he came out and attempted to locate it . His method tripped me out a bit . No lie , he picked up a Y shaped twig , held it by the Y , single end pointed toward the ground and proceeded to walk around the area of the yard where the well was supposed to be . The movie Rainmaker , ( not Rainman ) , flashed through my mind . His little stick finally landing on a spot , where he assured me the well was . He to was way off to . But the show it's self was worth the $100.00 he charged me . I was greatly in need of some humor by this time.

Alright with that little ordeal not working , we changed direction . We knew that the well pipe , to the water pump came up in the garage of the old house . This we had no problem locating . We did have to do a little digging to get to it , but no big deal . Off we went to the home improvement store , for a water pump and related fittings . My husband and I both have a natural knack for figuring things out . Generally , either individually , or through a joint effort , there haven't been to many projects we haven't been able to handle over the years . Restoring water was just another project .
OK we have electric , water, and hooked the camper up to the existing septic . Things were a little more normal , normal as it could be , with extension cords and garden hoses strung across the yard . I kept telling myself this is only temporary .





.

Free Falling Into Hell

June 6, 2006 started out like any other work day . I grudgingly got up at 3:30 am , dressed and headed off to work . Upon arriving at work that morning my shift was told that we wouldn't be running that day . So I was sent home . I was grateful for the unexpected day off , we tended to work 7 days a week for weeks on end , so the time off was welcome . So I headed back home and back to bed for some much-needed sleep .
My son and his girlfriend were living with us a the time , she and I were the only ones home that morning . Around 11:00 am my son's girlfriend ask if I smelt smoke ? Unfortunately I did . So off I went looking for the source , didn't take long to find it . When I open the door from the Family room to the garage , I found the garage almost fully engulfed in flames . Quickly shut the door and frantically headed back to the main section of the house . Instructed the girlfriend to call 911 and went outside to see if maybe I could get it under control with the garden hose . Yeah right , well that wasn't happening . Back into the house I went , by this time the house was filling with smoke and I could see flames coming out of the roof of the garage . Grabbed my car keys, cell phone ( to this day, with all the confusion , I still don't know how I had enough sense to do this ) and we headed for safety . Pulled my truck a safe distance from the house and there we sat waiting for the fire department to arrive . Four fire departments to be exact .
As I was sitting there waiting and collecting my thoughts , I realized that our three dogs were still in the house . Any other day they would have been outside in a fenced in area we had set up for them , but for some reason they had come back in that morning . I went to the living room window and pushed the screen in thinking I could get them out that way . But at that point the house was full of a thick black smoke and I could only see about a foot inside the house and they didn't come to me when I called . I knew better than to re-enter the house .
So back in the safety of the truck I sat and waited , for the fire department , for my husband , and for it to all be over . It's sickening to sit , and watch twenty-three years of your life go up in smoke and flames ,and there's not a damn thing you can do about it . This was the first time in my life that I felt truly helpless .
I didn't know it at the time but the reality of it would take months sink in .
The fire companies started showing up about 30-45 minutes after our call . Under the circumstances , this was a fairly good response time . We live 8-9 miles from the closest fire house and there are no manned fire departments local to us . So fire fighters are volunteers and had to be rounded up then dispatched from the fire house . But once they got to us they didn't waste any time getting to work putting the fire out .
Someone from one of the fire departments put a call into Red Cross for us and a representative was on site before the fire departments even left . The Red Cross set us up with three nights at a local hotel , and food and clothing vouchers for the four of us . This was a blessing , because my brain hadn't even gotten to part about where are we going to sleep tonight , or what are we going to wear . The only clothing we had , was what each of us were wearing , and I don't know who's pants I had on , only that they were about 3 sizes to big and I didn't have a belt .. When I left the house I had on a pair of sleeping shorts, a tee-shirt and sandals . Sometime during the chaos , my daughter or someone gave me a pair of jeans to put on .
Once the fire was extinguished and the fire departments packed up , and gone , I made the request that someone go into what remained of the house and retrieve the dog's bodies . I also requested that when they brought them out , that I be somewhere else . I couldn't bear to see them . I somehow felt , and still feel that I could have some how saved them . My son's took care of those requests , burying them some where on our lot . I didn't ask where , don't want to know . Maybe some day I'll ask . It's been 5 years , and of all the things we lost , losing the dogs still makes me cry .
The rest of the day is pretty much a blur . We checked into the hotel , bought clothes, and food . These are things I know we did , but don't have any clear memory of participating in the events . For about a week or so I functioned in a fog .
Future posts will follow our stages or phases of coming back from nothing . The setbacks , the obstacles and resources we found to over come these . Hopefully this information will be helpful to others in the same or similar situations.