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2006.02.06 |
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We had a fire. Everyone's OK but we sure could use some help right now. (Updated)
Just a short note on why my blog hasn't been updated since Saturday night and posting may be light for a few more days. The first few posts after this one will be things I would have posted Saturday night if TypePad hadn't been down for upgrades. I woke up yesterday morning to a room full of smoke. Apparently we haven't been changing our smoke-detector batteries as often as we should have. If my nephew hadn't gotten up to use the bathroom I guess we all could have died in our sleep. As it was, the fire damage was restricted to a small area in the kitchen. We have a hole in the wall behind where the stove would normally be and a hole in the floor, partially under where the stove was and extending across to just in front of the fridge. The electrician came by this morning to check out the wiring and replace an outlet and light switch that were damaged by the fire, and now we have lights, internet service, etc again but we still don't have any heat. The working theory right now is that the fire was caused by a leak in a gas line under the house -- we have gas heat -- and we're waiting for someone to come and check and repair the lines. I don't know how long it will be till we can move back in. I plan on moving back as soon as the heat's back on, or maybe sooner depending on the forecast, but the rest of the family may choose to stay in a motel till the floor's fixed and things are cleaned up a little. I'm going to spend some time catching up on the news and my email then post the things I had ready to go Saturday, then I may or may not post some more current things after while. I don't know how much State Farm's going to cover yet; having the gas lines repaired may be our problem, and we're going to have to eat out for at least a little while. There's a PayPal button on my right sidebar if anyone's inclined to help out. Thank you and God bless. *** Update: First, a thank you to Laurie at Soldier's Angels for linking to this post. I have very mixed feelings about accepting money that could have gone to one of the Angels' projects, but if I don't I don't know how we're going to pay the deductible on the fire insurance policy and make up for the work time my sister has lost and will be losing because of the fire. I promise not to turn a profit on the fire -- any donations I receive beyond what the fire cost us will be donated to Soldiers' Angels, which was already my favorite charity anyway. The plumbers are here trying to locate the gas line leak that caused the fire. If they can't get the heat back on they're going to drain the water lines, which will place serious restrictions on how much time can spend here until the heat and water are back on. I'm going to go ahead and post the things I had ready Saturday night and at least one more post too important to keep but beyond that my blogging may be very light for a while. *** Update 2: We have heat in enough of the house that I'm spending the night here; I think part of the family's going to spend another night in a motel. We have through-the-wall space heaters working in this room and one other bedroom but the stove that provides most of the heat for the house is shut off for now; turns out the gas leak was in the line to that stove. The fire apparently burned for a while under the floor before breaking through behind the kitchen stove. I'm still trying to figure out how we got by with just a fire and not an explosion. Anyway, part of the house is still pretty chilly -- the hole the firemen had to cut in the floor isn't helping a bit -- and we can't cook except with the microwave. I'm linking to Greyhawk's latest Open Post. *** Update 3 -- 2006.02.07 15:00CST It looks like I'm going to be the only one staying in the house for at least another day or two. We have two bedrooms and a bathroom we can keep warm if we shut the doors to the rest of the house. The stove that normally heats most of the house can't be used until the gas line that feeds it is replaced. We can't even make temporary repairs to the hole in the kitchen floor (which opens into an unheated crawl-space) until we get the gas lines replaced. Aside from not being able to get anyone to repair the lines on short notice we just learned State Farm isn't paying for the repairs (That doesn't surprise me but it apparently did my sister) and coming up with the money is going to be a challenge. I don't know how much that's going to take but I'll repeat my earlier promise: Any donations we receive beyond what it takes to pay for that, the deductible on the insurance, and my sister's lost wages will be passed on to Soldiers' Angels. Please help if you can. *** Update 4 -- 2006.02.08 22:30 CST Thank you Mrs. Greyhawk for the link! I realized after reading one of the comments on Mrs G's post that it's time for an update and clarification on this one. We're quite satisfied with how State Farm has handled this so far. They're paying for replacing the gas line that caused the fire, for repairing the part of the house that was damaged, for motel rooms while the house wasn't habitable, for cleaning smoky walls and carpets, etc, etc. I was confused about what they were covering when I did my last update. We need to have some very old gas lines under the rest of the house replaced sometime soon at our expense, but it's reasonable for the policy not to cover normal aging and my best guess is this place is around 100 years old -- We moved here 49 years ago and it wasn't new then; Dad did some major remodeling but I don't remember him ever replacing any gas lines. We've received enough donations so far to just about cover my sister's lost wages due to the fire but we're still a long way from having enough to cover the deductible on the insurance policy. I'm still hoping. The largest donation we've received so far was from Soldiers' Angels. I feel guilty about taking money from them with all of the worthy projects they support but the best I can do is to promise to treat it as a loan, which I swear I'll do. If we get enough donations from other sources I'll pay it back within the next few days and if we don't I'll find a way eventually. I'm upgrading my earlier promise about Soldiers Angels. If we receive more donations than just what it takes to cover what the fire ends up costing us I'll pass the extra on to SA as soon as I finish doing the math; I'd already said that. My lawyer still says that eventually the Social Security Administration is going to have to admit I'm disabled and pay me back-benefits for all the months they've been stalling. When that happens, I'll send Soldiers' Angels two dollars for every dollar in donations that we receive and don't pass on to them within the next few days. That's in addition to the cut of my settlement check I'd already planned on sending them before the fire. Angels rock and I will not break that promise. Besides, do you realize how many angry vets they could send looking for me if I did them wrong? ;-) *** Continued here. |
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Posted by Bill Faith on February 6, 2006 at 12:43 PM in My Life | Permalink TrackBack Listed below are links to weblogs that reference We had a fire. Everyone's OK but we sure could use some help right now. (Updated):
» Friend Supporter Had a Fire from Soldiers' Angels New York Tracked on Feb 6, 2006 2:20:00 PM
» H&I Fires 9 Feb 06 from Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. Tracked on Feb 9, 2006 1:09:51 AM
» So I'm Offline For Five Days... from Soldiers' Angels Germany Tracked on Feb 10, 2006 1:43:30 PM
Comments Thanks, Bill. Just helping out where I can. How are the puppies, all okay I assume or you would have mentioned it. Posted by: Laurie | Feb 6, 2006 4:28:10 PM Hey Bill, I am so sorry! I just started working from home and haven't been able to keep up on my blog-reading! I hope you are all okay! Such a scary situation. Stay safe!Posted by: Anna | Feb 7, 2006 9:22:09 AM Don't scare me like that anymore. I love you.Posted by: Heather Brinkley | Feb 7, 2006 8:03:54 PM I'm so glad you're okay! And don't feel bad about getting help from Soldiers' Angels. You're a vet, and helping vets in need is exactly what Soldiers' Angels does. :)Posted by: FbL | Feb 9, 2006 6:03:00 AM Bill, (to steal the title of a miniseries) we are a band of brothers, and come Friday, I will be making a donation to you. My waist can afford to cut out the fast food and it will do my heart good to walk to work for a week.Posted by: Jon The Mechanic | Feb 9, 2006 11:20:12 AM Sorry to hear this. I'm deployed right now, what am I going to do with the money? I know it's going to the right place.Posted by: Matthew E. | Feb 14, 2006 9:35:24 AM Post a comment |
