While digging for my senior picture, I came across some others I wanted to share. This was what my house looked like in 1994. If you look carefully, you'll notice the firemen all standing around. No, our house didn't catch on fire accidentally -- we burned it down on purpose. We were in the process of having a manufactured home built. In order to do that we had to demolish the existing home. Turns out demolishing a house is really expensive. Since my husband knew so many firemen, we had them burn it down. They got a training exercise and we got our house taken down. This caused a lot of excitement on our road. People stopped to watch, TV and newspaper people came by and of course, there were a few people who took the time to complain to me. One man told me the wood should be recycled. He wasn't the one living in a house with a roof that leaked. That particular winter we had water coming out the light sockets when it rained. Another told me it was a shame how we cut some trees down a few months prior. He wasn't the one living under oak trees that were constantly falling down around his children. I think the icing on the cake was a phone call we got the day of the burn. The house lay smoldering in rubble and we get a call from our bank saying our loan didn't go through. Nice. We didn't need to hear that, especially now that we were homeless. Eventually, we got the loan and the new house was built. There's a picture of it a few posts below. We have a video tape of our house burning down as well as the segment that made the nightly news. It was an interesting day.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
My house is on fire!
While digging for my senior picture, I came across some others I wanted to share. This was what my house looked like in 1994. If you look carefully, you'll notice the firemen all standing around. No, our house didn't catch on fire accidentally -- we burned it down on purpose. We were in the process of having a manufactured home built. In order to do that we had to demolish the existing home. Turns out demolishing a house is really expensive. Since my husband knew so many firemen, we had them burn it down. They got a training exercise and we got our house taken down. This caused a lot of excitement on our road. People stopped to watch, TV and newspaper people came by and of course, there were a few people who took the time to complain to me. One man told me the wood should be recycled. He wasn't the one living in a house with a roof that leaked. That particular winter we had water coming out the light sockets when it rained. Another told me it was a shame how we cut some trees down a few months prior. He wasn't the one living under oak trees that were constantly falling down around his children. I think the icing on the cake was a phone call we got the day of the burn. The house lay smoldering in rubble and we get a call from our bank saying our loan didn't go through. Nice. We didn't need to hear that, especially now that we were homeless. Eventually, we got the loan and the new house was built. There's a picture of it a few posts below. We have a video tape of our house burning down as well as the segment that made the nightly news. It was an interesting day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hmmmm, in Canada burning a house down on purpose is called arson... but in California it is a fireman 'training exercise.' lol
ReplyDeleteLOL Tracy! They asked if I wanted to go inside when it was burning. I can't remember if Rick did or not, but they would have let me if I wanted to. They had all the gear for me to wear and everything, but I turned them down. What they did was start the fire in certain places and then go in and put it out in different ways. They did this over and over, and then finally at the end they let it burn down until the only thing standing was the fireplace. The bulldozer was knocking the rubble down while the flames were still pretty high. Wild day!
ReplyDeleteHi Rena, I saw your comment on Holly's coffee.
ReplyDeleteNow, that's hot (sorry for the bad joke).
I believe you did well. For some weird reason I feel that well trained firemen are an asset to the community.
Ok, wow! I have never heard of doing this, but I guess it's one way of getting rid of your home. LOL When Extreme Home Makeover was here in town to make a house for some people, they didn't demolish it like they usually do, they blew it up. It was huge! Crazy!
ReplyDeleteNancy
What a story! I can't imagine watching my house burn down, even if I was planning to put up a new one. What did you do in the mean time?
ReplyDeleteI think that would give me a creepy feeling watching my house burn down...even if I planned it...grin...
ReplyDeleteGlad things worked out!
Cool. Just like something on extreme home makeover! Except Ty didn't do it.
ReplyDeleteMiguel -- Thanks for stopping by. Yeah, I agree with you about having well trained firemen. It's good when people know what they're doing. The station that did our house was mostly all friends, so it was a fun day.
ReplyDeleteNancy -- Wow, they blew the house up? I wonder if we could have gotten away with that? LOL!
Adrienne -- It was kind of sad watching it go down, but we knew it was for the best. It was really old and starting to be more of a hazard. Fortunately, my ILs were right next door, so that's where we stayed until it was all completed.
Brenda -- Yeah, it was creepy. I was nervous they weren't going to be able to do it because we picked up a bit of wind that morning. I think it was harder for my ILs. It was my MIL's house that she grew up in. She knew the problems though and was all for the idea of putting up a newer home. It was creepy, but more so it was interesting to see how quickly things can go up in flames.
Doda -- LOL @ Ty not doing it. Yeah, wouldn't that have been nice if he could have come over! ;)
guess if its gotta go... better to get something out of it like a training session. Its not everyday the firies get to start their own fires.
ReplyDeleteRena, I got worried for a second when I read your title and saw the picture! Glad it was on purpose and served the firemen well for a practice fire. That must have been on strange day!
ReplyDeleteOMG! The title of your blog totally made me nervous!
ReplyDelete:0) I'm glad your house was on fire on purpose and not on accident. and shame on those people for thinking they had any right to tell you what you should've done. Those types of people bug me!!!! @#$!@#$!@
Christy
Fascinating. But the creepiest part is water coming out of the light sockets!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting day that would be. There's a fireman's test tower not too far from where I live. Every once in a while, we see a test fire going but I don't think I've ever seen a house set on fire - on purpose.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got the loan - shoosh - I would have been frantic.
What a good idea! I did wonder why those firemen all looked so nonchalant - till I read the story.
ReplyDeleteI think the icing on the cake was a phone call we got the day of the burn. The house lay smoldering in rubble and we get a call from our bank saying our loan didn't go through. Nice.
ReplyDeleteLOL!! Glad you did get the loan, in the end. That would've been truly horrible. Or not. After all, a house with leaky light sockets is not a safe place to live.
Nice training exercise!
Well you have a really cool story, anyway! And video tape!
ReplyDeleteSorry about the comments and the loan though, that had to have sucked.
But again, cool story and pictures!