Stupid Boards Burned Twice!

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I kind of feel for my neighbor Dean. He's one of those neighbors you dream of, never questions anything I do even though I own land all the way around him and am constantly logging and digging gravel from the gravel pit that surrounds his house.

Anyway when my dad's house burned down we hauled the old house down to the gravel pit in big dump truck loads. Dean asked if he could use any of the salvaged wood to build his garage. We didn't care so board by board, and nail pulled by nail pulled, he took the charred lumber and built the tahmahal of 3 story garages. It took him 5 years, and was nowhere near done, but 30 minutes ago he started his woodstove, there was an explosion and his 3 story garage was leveled by explosion and fire. He managed to live, but burned his face and hands pretty good on the way out, but luckily his mobile home only 50 feet away survived, though it did blow out the windows from the explosion and heat.

I kind of feel bad for the guy. He is one of these build-as-you-go, financing is for silly people kind of people who pays everything with cash...or more likely...by being a hard worker and frugal. His cars were parked inside, and without insurance on his building and only liability insurance on his cars, he kind of out of luck.

I do kind of find it funny though, these boards were in my dad's house and burned, then resurrected and built a new garage only to burn again. Not many boards can say they burned twice!
 
Travis,

Is the cause of the fire known yet? Not knowing much about such things, creosote build-up popped to mind but it seems like that would be more likely to cause a chimney fire rather than an explosion.

I'm sorry to hear about his misfortune and will be sure to send positive thoughts his way.
 
Poor guy. I hope he had insurance.

and without insurance on his building and only liability insurance on his cars, he kind of out of luck.

No, he didn't have insurance, on either the garage or the cars. Kind of feel bad for him for sure.

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If there was a BOOM then there were gas fumes, propane or some other explosive gas/air mixture. What a pity about the whole thing. But insurance is sometimes a luxury.
 
I talked with him today and think I figured it out. He is frugal like I said, and so he was storing up gasoline "while it was cheap for when it gets expensive" which obviously was a huge contributing factor. But he was NOT as dumb as you think, his wood stove was one of those circulating wood stoves and so he had it outside of his shop and blew just the hot air into his garage. Still there must have been a crack in the heat exchanger or something and boom...

He definitely lost a lot of stuff. Tools, cars, false teeth...a lot.
 
Travis how i feel about this story would probably get me banned here for life. Here you get a guy trying to do what few others in this world have done and live within his means and this happens to him. Very sad story, really sad. Have you ever considered asking a few of the local neighbors and community to come together to help the guy back on his feet like was done in the old days. This guy doesnt deserve this kind of luck and i am sure he would love to know his community cares. Yup he was stupid storing gas but we all make mistakes. Man its a sad story also makes one angry.:mad:
 
Must still be the old days here Rob, my brother and I have already started logging some big spruce off the farm here so they can be sawn into lumber. He said on the next garage he might go with a standard garage so it won't take much lumber to do that, 3000-4000 board feet??? Of course I gave him permission to pick up and haul his burned garage down into my gravel pit because it would cost him to haul it off, and besides, half of my dad's burned house is there anyway, so if you are going to have a burned house pile, you minds well have one big pile rather then two little piles. :thumb:

I know another guy is showing up with his excavator sometime this week and going to move the debris, and knowing that guy, it won't cost him a penny...donated work. I'm not sure about the sawmilling, it's tough to get people to do that for free, but maybe at a reduced rate, who knows??? Its not the first time we have rebuilt a burned house in this town for someone who did not have insurance...we were Extreme Makeover-Home Edition long before it was on TV.
 
Well done and good for you and your brother as well as the community. :thumb::thumb:This story really hit me between the ears last night. Told loml about.
This goes back to my basic beliefs that the majority of people are good folks and honest people at heart.

Post some pics of the rebuild.

Kudos again. :thumb::thumb:
 
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