Another fire, this time my grandparents home

[j_garcia]

The home of our family for more than 50 years caught fire and was badly damaged over the weekend. My family were asleep at the time, but the neighbors saw the smoke and got everyone out. Four family members went to the hospital, three were treated and released, but my one aunt was injured trying to save my young nephews and the dogs. She suffered some burns, but nothing life threatening though, thank god. Everyone safe is the main thing.

Pretty upsetting. Basically at one point or another, everyone in the immediate family has lived in those houses and spent significant portions of our lives there. It is literally part of our family. It holds a ton of history for us. It appears to have been electrical in nature. Old house, old wiring, and not one week prior my aunt had an electrician come out to inspect the hood fan in the front house because of "crackling" noises. He disconnected it and said "You're lucky this didn't start a fire." Fire started in the living room and is under investigation.

 

[adk highlander]

Wow John. Really sorry to hear but I am glad everyone is safe. House can be replaced while family cannot. Thoughts are with you.

 

[Midwesthonky]

Glad everyone made it out with relatively minor injuries! You can replace objects but not family members.

I've lived in several old houses whose wiring left much to be desired. I even heard of one house that had aluminum wiring. Seller had added about 18" of copper to each run so it looked like it was copper and not aluminum to an inspector.

Will insurance be able to cover most of the costs? Everyone able to find a place to stay?

 

[j_garcia]

The damaged house is unlivable right now and insurance put them up in a hotel. That house is boarded up and nobody is to enter because it is considered unsafe. The fire burned where the laundry room is, so there may be damage to the other house, but they did not tell them they could not stay there as the immediate areas were only smoke damaged. They are supposed to find out today whether or not they will put up my other aunt (still in hospital) and my nephew up in a hotel or not during repair/clean up. If it was electrical, there will need to be an inspection most likely. We do have a lot of family in the area so we've got them covered for places to stay

 

[Steve81]

Sorry to hear that John. I'm glad that everyone is safe and has a roof over their heads!

 

[markw]

Thank God everyone got out pretty well unscathed. Things, including buildings, can be replaced but people and pets can't. thankfully, good memories live inside us forever.

 

[gholt]

Sorry to hear. Sucks to deal with the aftermath.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Sorry to hear John. Glad your loved ones are safe.

 

[afterlife2]

Glad everyone is safe, John. That sounded frightning.

 

[ImcLoud]

Sorry to here this John glad everyone is safe...

 

[fuzz092888]

Really sorry to hear that John, but glad everyone is alright. Hopefully the house can be salvaged and repaired to save some of that family history.

 

[Adam]

John, very sorry that happened, but as others have said - I'm very relieved that your family is okay.

 

[psbfan9]

Man John, I'm sorry to hear this. I'm happy everyone is ok for the most part. You've kind of had a crap year. I'm sending some positive mojo your way brother.

 

[Rickster71]

That's a shame John, sorry to hear. Glad all got out unharmed.
Didn't you have a fire truck parked in your driveway a year or two ago?
It was during large forest fire.

 

[herbu]

The home of our family for more than 50 years caught fire and was badly damaged over the weekend. My family were asleep at the time, but the neighbors saw the smoke and got everyone out.

Wow! I know was terrifying for them. So sorry, and sorry for any loss of stuff. People say stuff can be replaced, but not always. My dad lost a lot of photos, childhood stuff and all his Navy stuff in a garage fire. Could not be replaced. Memories remain, but the physical reminder of memories is dear. Hope most can be salvaged.

 

[j_garcia]

That's a shame John, sorry to hear. Glad all got out unharmed.
Didn't you have a fire truck parked in your driveway a year or two ago?
It was during large forest fire.

Yes, that was 2 years ago and we didn't lose anything but a whole lot of fence basically. Scary though. Last year we had the break in.

Wow! I know was terrifying for them. So sorry, and sorry for any loss of stuff. People say stuff can be replaced, but not always. My dad lost a lot of photos, childhood stuff and all his Navy stuff in a garage fire. Could not be replaced. Memories remain, but the physical reminder of memories is dear. Hope most can be salvaged.

Agreed. Yes that stuff can physically be replaced, but some of it holds specific memories and connects you to that time, so I completely understand. Some of the family items taken in our break in cannot be replaced either.

 

[crossedover]

Sorry to hear this John. Glad that everyone is safe. My family has a home in Louisiana that is 85+ years old and to get any work done is a state approval nightmare regardless of safety reasons. Hope all works out well

 

[its phillip]

That's really rough I don't know what to say other than it's great that nobody was really hurt.

 

[lsiberian]

The most important thing is everyone is okay. Glad she got the dogs out too.