TODAY IS THE 5th Anniversary of our 2016 house fire that was a life changer. We were working at remodeling our Master Bedroom at the time. The previous September, we were opening back up a middle window in the room that had been closed up with a wall. From what we could tell someone along the way closed this window up to make a wall to divide the room into two smaller rooms. We could see activity on the wood floor where a wall had been, but when we bought the house, the room had been opened back up to its previous size making a nice size room for a Master Bedroom leaving the boarded up window closed.
This room originally had 6 nice sized windows. A very sunny room to have in our 1885 two story, native limestone house. The day we worked on it was a beautiful AUTUMN day where Hubby had successfully removed the plaster off the wall in front of a window.
https://homehavenministry.blogspot.com/2016/09/mystery-window.html
WE WERE BOTH SO HAPPY TO HAVE A WINDOW THERE ONCE AGAIN.
As we were remodeling the Bedroom, September turned into October. Because the bedroom was such a mess with the remodeling, we were camped out at what I called RETIREMENT COTTAGE. Our cottage had a bed and all the niceties we'd need while away from our main house.
On October 25th, Hubby was at work and I was sitting in the COTTAGE Living room when I heard my daughter walk up on the porch at 10 till noon. I thought how sweet...she has come over to eat lunch with me. She rang the door bell and I answered the door where she had a very serious look on her face. She said to me, "I need your house keys. Your house is on fire! Get dressed!"
What she had said did not register with me as I became almost numb and I questioned, "My house is on fire?"
Handing her my house keys, she ran to her car and drove away. Someone had telephoned her at work to tell her that her Parents' house was on fire.
I was still in my pink housecoat taking the morning easy as I was tired and in slow mo. This news caused an adrenaline rush and I was now moving quicker than normal. Walking to the bathroom to get dressed, I began to shake. My house was on fire! It was like a nightmare. I was in the twilight zone.
I only had to walk a block to see the backside of our house. Chocolate brown smoke was bellowing from under the roof. I thought I'd see the house a blaze, but it wasn't. The stone house had contained the fire like a kiln. I walked down the side street and crossed over to the other side of the road to stand beside my daughter watching the firemen work on our place.
The front door was open where a water hose was being held by a fireman spraying water into the house. One of the upstair's windows was open with another water hose going into the structure.
My Husband had been contacted at work to come home, but drive safe, as the house was on fire. Wife was safe. Daughter told me my son in law was on his way as well.
I stood and watched this fiasco taking place and said, "I don't think I can watch this." I went and sat in the back of an ambulance truck parked down the street. The lady there was very nice and said that she had experienced a house fire. Pictures were what she missed the most.
I sat there thinking, how on earth did this happen? How did this happen?
Son in law showed up telling me he was sorry for our loss. And Hubby arrived home. After the fire was out and the firemen were outside, we thanked them for fighting the fire and shook their hands. To this day, I have not taken them a basket of goodies. I will, but for five years I have not been able to wrap my head around all of this.
Hubby and snl went inside to open some living room windows after the firemen left. The smell was beyond words...horrible.
That evening, Hubby and I would return to the house to get some jewelry out that I didn't want the cleaners to handle. My wedding ring was in cloth bag inside a container. The diamond in my wedding ring had shifted after a prong broke and I didn't want to wear it until it was repaired by a jeweler so I wasn't wearing it at the time of the fire.
I'd open the container that was in a drawer, take out the cloth bag and shake the ring out. The smell of the house fire was inside this cloth bag that had rested inside a container that was in a well sealed drawer.
Later I would learn that the smell and smoke had made it's way everywhere. Papers we had stored in boxes the basement were smoke stained. How on earth did smoke go through cracks in the walls and floors making its way to the basement?
The fire originally started in our kitchen in an old outlet that was in the stonewall. An outlet. We had told the investigator inspector that we thought maybe the fire had started with our microwave malfunctioning as the week before this horrible fire, we found a bag of potato chips shrink wrapped inside the microwave.
Both of us thought the other one had accidentally turned the microwave on not knowing that a bag of chips was inside the microwave. When we both acknowledged that we had not done that, we didn't give it anymore thought about it and went on, but after this fire we told the inspector that we thought maybe the microwave had started the fire as neither one of us was home at the time of the fire. We'd been sleeping over at the Cottage because of the remodeling we had going on upstairs.
The inspector believed that the outlet in the wall was the culprit starting this fire. He couldn't say if the microwave was at fault because all that was left of it were a couple of copper wires.
When I looked at the devastated Kitchen, the box springs from the antique bed were in the Kitchen. I was still in a type of shock as I looked bewildered that box springs were in the Kitchen. The fire had destroyed the bedroom which was above it and the springs had fallen through the floor into the Kitchen. duh.
My favorite cook books that were on top of the fridge were destroyed. I have tried to recollect the ones I lost.
After two weeks, the cleaning crew showed up wearing hazmat suits to remove the burned appliances. One man came out of the house carrying the refrigerator door with a jar of olives that were in the fridge door still intact. If anything were funny about this trauma it was the jar of olives still looking like they could be eaten.
We had to sit outside waiting for the interior contents to be carried out to the dumpster. We were allowed to say, "Don't throw that away." Or we want to keep that.
I wasn't there the day our Living room camel back sofa and wing chairs that I had saved up for 12 years to buy be broken apart and tossed into the dumpster. I was there to watch the upstairs furniture be pitched from the upstairs windows. That hurt and left a mark.
The furniture that the refinishers would take went out on a different day on a different truck to be ozoned and refinished. We didn't lose everything, but everything was molested by the smoke if it weren't burnt to a crisp. I think this is one of the reasons I don't want to give up any of our furniture when we do relocate to the Cottage. What the fire didn't devour, was repaired and returned to us about a year after the fire. Because of insurance we replaced the sofas and wing chairs, bed mattresses and box springs, towels, sheets, blankets, underwear, dishes, silverware, small appliances, cookware, stove, fridge, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner, some clothing, area rugs, sewing machine and an antique bedroom set.
Our four poster bed and dresser were refinished. My Husband's Grandparents' bedroom suite was refinished. A cedar chest. A dumb waiter table, a buffet, dining room table, a hutch, antique china cabinet, 2 antique parlour chairs were all refinished.
I know that furniture can be replaced. People cannot. We were blessed to not be home at the time of the fire. No one injured or killed. To God be the glory, great things He has done.
We have spent the last 5 years rebuilding our estate.
5 years has passed since the fire. We have lost 3 of our 4 Parents since then. We settled into a 1883 two story house in a different community not far from where we were living and have been here almost 4 and a half years already. Both of us having had thyroid cancer, we continue dealing with challenges from this. Hubby retired from his job in 2019. COVID reared her ugly head in 2020. We were isolated at HOME for a good six months then wore face masks when out in the world. Learn to do somethings a little different. Horrible knee and feet pain attacked my body which contributed to studying up some more about health issues. Terrible back pain pounced upon me in which I had to do physical therapy in a face mask. We are both diabetic now and Hubby has been diagnosed as having Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. We have watched our children and their children grow and flourish. We continue to cook and bake and get better organized. I have taken an interest in healthy lifestyles and changing eating habits. I lost 42 pounds wanting more to fall off of me. I can tell that I am 5 years older for sure. We're fixing up RETIREMENT COTTAGE for a HOME COMING next year. It's like LIFE is saying WELCOME HOME, kids. You still have much to do while here on planet earth.
TODAY MAY BE OUR 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEVASTATING HOUSE FIRE, but it hasn't completely kept us down. We have God, a HOME and we have each other. What was meant for evil has been turned to good. We continue to grow and be real people.
