A Fire is NOT a Good Way to Remodel Your Home

On Sunday morning, Feb 22, my folks went to church (the painfully early service, as usual!) and came home to have a relaxing day. The game plan was to read, probably eventually doze, and have an otherwise uneventful day. So they changed after church and my Dad lit a nice fire in the fireplace, since it was a bit cool out.

The fire was going around 10 minutes or so and my Dad went out to get some more wood to burn. He glanced up at the chimney and there was smoke pouring out of it in not the usual way. So he told Mom to get her quilts out and dialed 911. Mom tried to go upstairs to get some more of her quilts, but the smoke was too thick to make it up. Thankfully she didn't go up there! They tried to fight the fire with the water hose. Even complete strangers stopped to try to help. Unfortunately, well water pumps are electric. When the power box burned, the power went out and so did the water.

It took about ten minutes from the time the 911 call was placed until the fire trucks arrived. There was some problem with the first truck's pump, but all was quickly in working order. I'm sure it was the longest ten minutes in both of my parents' lives as they watched the house burn. It burned really fast and really hot. The firemen said that it would've only taken another ten minutes for the house to be a complete loss.

The Tanner Williams Fire Department was super nice, with some guys fighting the fire and others grabbing personal items, photos, or whatever 'non-replaceables' they could get their hands on. They even covered my Mom's piano with a tarp to try to keep any further damage from it.

When they got the fire under control, they let Mom and Dad go in and get as many sentimental items out as they could before they did a final drenching over everything with the water. So most of their photos and all Mom's quilts (except two) made it out.

When all was said and done, the attic and everything in it was pretty much burned. They sifted through some unrecognizable blobs that fell down into the house from the attic, but almost all in it was destroyed. Their bedroom was pretty bad, with one wall and part of the roof totally gone. The living room wasn't as bad as their bedroom, although it was pretty bad too. One wall gone, smoke, burned, and water damage.

The rest of the house had tons of smoke and water damage. Everything savable had to go to the restoration company to go through some type of ozone cleaning.

It was unofficially determined that the fireplace insert had failed. The house is 23 years old (Mom and Dad had it built in the mid 80's) with the fireplace insert the same age. It is unbelievable to me that a fire of that intensity could happen so quickly!

I am so thankful that they are okay! They ended up with a few items of clothing because Dad had brought a basket of laundry downstairs to put in the washer just before the fire. But other than the basket, they just had the clothes they were wearing.

The fire happened on Sunday and we arrived in Mobile on Tuesday night. I will post more about that soon. For now, here are some pictures of the fire. Marty took some with his cell phone as it was happening. Some are what I took on Wednesday morning when I arrived. As usual, click on the picture one time to see it bigger.

While the firemen were still there.

Mom and Dad's bedroom after they got the quilt off the bed. The fire was so hot, it melted what it didn't burn. Notice the ceiling fan.

What it looked like before they got the quilt off the bed.


Firemen at work.


The living room. The fire was so hot it melted all the keys to Mom's electric piano together. Needless to say, the electric piano didn't make it.

I dunno if you can see this well or not. The fireman is standing on the roof of the garage, hacking a hole in the attic to spray water straight through.

The view out the missing wall in Mom and Dad's room.

This was taken Wednesday morning when I was there. Lipford Construction was there trying to get the roof and wall covered so it wouldn't rain inside and cause more damage. FYI, when I lived there, my bedroom was upstairs, the last two windows on the right hand side. Incidentally, only smoke damage in my old room. The ceiling was black with smoke and the whole room smelled awful!


A photo I took of Mom and Dad's new "picture window" and "sky light". This was after the construction crew cleaned all the debris out.

The living room as it was being gutted. The fireplace and wood box are the open squares you see here that they were covering with plywood.

An overview of the outside of the house, taken on Wednesday.


A personal touch. This is only one example of the small kindnesses bestowed upon my parents by the community, EMS folks, volunteer fire fighters, and even the construction crew. One of the guys scooping out all the debris found a family photo soggy, burned and scraped up. He placed it up on a closet shelf where we could find it. A very nice gesture indeed.

My parents have been blessed by all the support they are receiving from the community and the outpouring of love and empathy from friends and neighbours. With very few exceptions, people have been bending over backward to be helpful and supportive of them during this difficult time. They are fortunate indeed to have such good friends and angels in disguise surrounding them.

I have lots of commentary and pictures of the time we spent with them that aren't fire-related that I will share as soon as possible. Even though the purpose of our visit was to help out during this difficult time, we spent some great quality time together and had some wonderful experiences despite the reason for our visit.