Neighbor's house burned.....

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remkel

Minister of Fire
Jan 21, 2010
1,459
Southwest NH
Came home tonight to find out my neighbor's house had burned to the ground. Amazing thing is he did not have a fireplace or a wood stove. Thankfully no one was home when the fire started.

Did get me to thinking about the mess I found in my chimney and how for but the grace of God it could have been me..
 
Wow! That has to be a pretty shocking sight! Not too long ago, I used to go to this lady's farm house to get one of my ducks to breed with her drake. One day, I was driving by the neighborhood so I figured I'd stop and say hello. I pulled in the driveway and noticed her gate was open for one, then noticed her doors and windows were all boarded up and her animals were all gone from out in the yard. Her property was always lively with the sounds and sights of goats, horses, chickens, ducks, guinea hens and her dogs. There was a part of the house that had burned down and her car was still in the driveway. Turns out, she had lost the farm in a long hard fought court battle with her brother. She brought her horses in the house and killed them, then set her house on fire with herself in it! That was pretty shocking to hear!

Now, back to your situation, I wish your neighbor the best of luck in this time of need. It can't be easy to lose your home.
 
Man, VC, that is a horrible story!

I am just glad that everyone was ok here. Has the whole community in shock.
 
Wow! That has to be a pretty shocking sight! Not too long ago, I used to go to this lady’s farm house to get one of my ducks to breed with her drake. One day, I was driving by the neighborhood so I figured I’d stop and say hello. I pulled in the driveway and noticed her gate was open for one, then noticed her doors and windows were all boarded up and her animals were all gone from out in the yard. Her property was always lively with the sounds and sights of goats, horses, chickens, ducks, guinea hens and her dogs. There was a part of the house that had burned down and her car was still in the driveway. Turns out, she had lost the farm in a long hard fought court battle with her brother. She brought her horses in the house and killed them, then set her house on fire with herself in it! That was pretty shocking to hear!

I remember reading about that in the paper, thats the next town from you isnt it?
 
VCBurner said:
Wow! That has to be a pretty shocking sight! Not too long ago, I used to go to this lady's farm house to get one of my ducks to breed with her drake. One day, I was driving by the neighborhood so I figured I'd stop and say hello. I pulled in the driveway and noticed her gate was open for one, then noticed her doors and windows were all boarded up and her animals were all gone from out in the yard. Her property was always lively with the sounds and sights of goats, horses, chickens, ducks, guinea hens and her dogs. There was a part of the house that had burned down and her car was still in the driveway. Turns out, she had lost the farm in a long hard fought court battle with her brother. She brought her horses in the house and killed them, then set her house on fire with herself in it! That was pretty shocking to hear!

Now, back to your situation, I wish your neighbor the best of luck in this time of need. It can't be easy to lose your home.

boy man i bet your a real upper at a party. remind me not to invite you! hehe

debbie downer!
 
our neighbor about half mile down the road lost their home 6 years ago Remkel (faulty furnace) they are a retired couple and the wife is in a wheelchair.

Don is a backyard mechanic and was out in the shop when it broke out,luckily he spotted the smoke ran into the house and carried his wife out with some minor smoke inhalation,very scary!! the insurance company were good about the whole thing and they have a nice new home but minus all their contents/memories.

they could have been lodged somewhere else but they wanted to stay and help with the rebuild so the husband rigged up a large trailer to accomadate him and his wife and thats where they stayed for about a year ;-)

loon
 
cmonSTART said:
Remi, I don't remember the houses in your area being very old, am I right? That's a bit scary.

Nope, all of the houses in my development are 8 years or less. Looks like it was something in the kitchen. State fire marshal is coming back today to determine the cause. I know this is not really wood burning related, but I just think about my chimney and the damage that could have been done had that thing gone up.
 
We had 3 houses burn in my small town in about 3 or 4 weeks this winter. One was a woodstove, one a heat lamp, and one the star on top of a Christmas tree.
People were a little nervous that it might have been a firebug until the causes were found.
 
We lost our home 4 year ago to a fire. They never determined what caused it but I think a spark or coal made it out when filling the wood stove. We had a large chair that had some clean laundry on it to be folded. It was about 4 feet from the stove but only about 1 foot from the hearth. So a coal could have bounced. It looked like that was the ignition point. I am so paranoid now about fire. Our insurance company was great. Then I totaled my car 1 month after the fire after hitting a deer, same insurance company of course.

BIH
 
BIGISLANDHIKERS said:
We lost our home 4 year ago to a fire. They never determined what caused it but I think a spark or coal made it out when filling the wood stove. We had a large chair that had some clean laundry on it to be folded. It was about 4 feet from the stove but only about 1 foot from the hearth. So a coal could have bounced. It looked like that was the ignition point. I am so cautious and respect fire. Our insurance company was great. Then I totaled my car 1 month after the fire after hitting a deer, same insurance company of course.

BIH

I fixed your thread . . . what one may call paranoia another may call being prudent . . . I think it sounds better to say you're prudent vs. paranoid.
 
There are 101 ways or more to burn down a house . . . not all of them are due to woodstoves and fireplaces.

Number one cause by the way is cooking . . . followed by electrical and heating equipment.
 
firefighterjake said:
BIGISLANDHIKERS said:
We lost our home 4 year ago to a fire. They never determined what caused it but I think a spark or coal made it out when filling the wood stove. We had a large chair that had some clean laundry on it to be folded. It was about 4 feet from the stove but only about 1 foot from the hearth. So a coal could have bounced. It looked like that was the ignition point. I am so cautious and respect fire. Our insurance company was great. Then I totaled my car 1 month after the fire after hitting a deer, same insurance company of course.

BIH

I fixed your thread . . . what one may call paranoia another may call being prudent . . . I think it sounds better to say you're prudent vs. paranoid.

I would say some days I am paranoid. Unplugging stuff that doesn't need to be unplugged. Checking pellet stove two or three times before I leave. A while back my neighbor was burning leaves. About a mile away on my way home it looked like it was coming from our house. I just about *&*^ myself. Just one of those things:/

Thanks BIH
 
Remkel said:
Man, VC, that is a horrible story!

I am just glad that everyone was ok here. Has the whole community in shock.
Well, yeah, she was always a little loopy, but the final result was certainly a shock!
 
weatherguy said:
Wow! That has to be a pretty shocking sight! Not too long ago, I used to go to this lady’s farm house to get one of my ducks to breed with her drake. One day, I was driving by the neighborhood so I figured I’d stop and say hello. I pulled in the driveway and noticed her gate was open for one, then noticed her doors and windows were all boarded up and her animals were all gone from out in the yard. Her property was always lively with the sounds and sights of goats, horses, chickens, ducks, guinea hens and her dogs. There was a part of the house that had burned down and her car was still in the driveway. Turns out, she had lost the farm in a long hard fought court battle with her brother. She brought her horses in the house and killed them, then set her house on fire with herself in it! That was pretty shocking to hear!

I remember reading about that in the paper, thats the next town from you isnt it?
Yes it boarders Paxton, she was in Spencer. Everyone who knew her was shocked.
 
My next door neighbor lost her house to fire a couple of weeks ago. It was so strange, the house was there when I went to work and completely gone on the way home. No insurance. Small town community is a great place to live in times of need, someone donated a house to be moved in place of her old one.
 
greythorn3 said:
VCBurner said:
Wow! That has to be a pretty shocking sight! Not too long ago, I used to go to this lady's farm house to get one of my ducks to breed with her drake. One day, I was driving by the neighborhood so I figured I'd stop and say hello. I pulled in the driveway and noticed her gate was open for one, then noticed her doors and windows were all boarded up and her animals were all gone from out in the yard. Her property was always lively with the sounds and sights of goats, horses, chickens, ducks, guinea hens and her dogs. There was a part of the house that had burned down and her car was still in the driveway. Turns out, she had lost the farm in a long hard fought court battle with her brother. She brought her horses in the house and killed them, then set her house on fire with herself in it! That was pretty shocking to hear!

Now, back to your situation, I wish your neighbor the best of luck in this time of need. It can't be easy to lose your home.

boy man i bet your a real upper at a party. remind me not to invite you! hehe

debbie downer!

Sorry greyhorn, I didn't mean to bum you out! I didn't do it! :red: I just thought this was not a happy type of thread anyway. But, had it not been the topic here I'm actually a pretty positive guy! ;-P The glass is half full for his neighbor. Everyone is OK physically.
 
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