OT: Fireproof your house!!

Nov 29, 2003 19 Replies
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This is as far off-topic as it gets, however if just one single person listens/learns it could save grief..



The night to last Wednesday my mothers and grandparents hous burned down. My mother and her husband made it out with their dogs, only to see my grand parents not come out. 04:05 in the morning my mothers husband called in the fire...



It was bizzare to say the least, I live about 50k's away, and had not been sleeping well that night, as often happens. Was up around four- five 'ish went back to bed, listened to the radio, and there was a news flash about a big fire down town Oslo. Got up turned on the telly to watch the breakfast news at 06:30, saw the story on the big fire, seconds later they said a couple aged 88 had died in a fire up at Jessheim, two survivors out of the same house... My grand parents turned 88 last week, ....next news flash they said daughter and son in law got out safe... could not be wrong, eh?



No, it was not, house is mostly burned to the ground, I was up there at



11:00 in the morning to find a copper half asleep in his car, told him who I was, he said it was ok, but not to go inside...

Came back later with my mothers husband(still in shock, you should think he was on uppers, major adrenaline thingie, never seen anything alike it) only to learn that the bodys where still in there, where me and the dog had been "strolling" along earlier....



It turnes out it was very close for my mother and husband to "go" aswell, just offbeat chance that he heard the smoke detector next door go off, theirs where without batteries.....


I'm not the person to tell anyone what to do... But right now I'm two down and got two skarred/scared living in an non insulated cabin/hut, thank someone the weather is still "warm". And yes, they could get help as in accomodation, but my mother got four dogs she refuses to place in a cennel(?)..



Yes, I know, this is not my outmost brilliant piece of English written.... Hopefully you'll get the drift though...


Jørn.


Sorry to hear of your loss. I hope that also reminds people to check the batteries in their smoke detectors?

Neil

Best wishes to you and yours. Jim BergRace wrote: This is as far off-topic as it gets, however if just one single person listens/learns it could save grief.. The night to last Wednesday my mothers and grandparents hous burned down. My mother and her husband made it out with their dogs, only to see my grand parents not come out. 04:05 in the morning my mothers husband called in the fire... It was bizzare to say the least, I live about 50k's away, and had not been sleeping well that night, as often happens. Was up around four- five 'ish went back to bed, listened to the radio, and there was a  news flash about a big fire down town Oslo. Got up turned on the telly to watch the breakfast news at 06:30, saw the story on the big fire, seconds later they said a couple aged 88 had died in a fire up at Jessheim, two survivors out of the same house... My grand parents turned 88 last week, ....next news flash they said daughter and son in law got out safe...  could not be wrong, eh? No, it was not, house is mostly burned to the ground, I was up there at

11:00 in the morning to find a copper half asleep in his car, told him who I was, he said it was ok, but not to go inside... Came back later with my mothers husband(still in shock, you should think he was on uppers, major adrenaline thingie, never seen anything alike it) only to learn that the bodys where still in there, where me and the dog had been "strolling" along earlier.... It turnes out it was very close for my mother and husband to "go" aswell, just offbeat chance that he heard the smoke detector next door go off, theirs where without batteries..... I'm not the person to tell anyone what to do...     But right now I'm two down and got two skarred/scared living in an non insulated cabin/hut, thank someone the weather is still "warm".   And yes, they could get help as in accomodation, but my mother got four dogs she refuses to place in a cennel(?).. Yes, I know, this is not my outmost brilliant piece of English written.... Hopefully you'll get the drift though... Jørn.

Jorn:

Very sorry to hear about your loss. Your family is in our thoughts and prayers. Bill Berckman

67 Beetle Pictures at
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VW/Porsche Family Reunion Show 2003 Pictures
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Jorn, I'm so very sorry to hear of your loss and your families misfortune...please accept my sympathies and prayers...I wish you and your family strength.....as for the safety, *EVERYONE* needs to be abit more alert to the dangers that we face *every* day.....we become too *comfortable* with our life and dont' stop to think that we could lose it....again Jorn, sorry for your loss...

------------------- Chris Perdue

*All opinions are those of the author of this post* "Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug"
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reply take your PANTS off

Sorry to hear about your loss. Dennis

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As lame as it sounds, "Me too". Sad news indeed. Have seen a few house fires up close, one was my parents' house. Luckily nobody was home. We first thought mom was in the house and we couldn't reach her by phone and had no idea where she was.

Turns out she had gone to visit a friend and forgot her cellphone home. Phew. I called the fire department when their neighbor called me to tell me the house is on fire, and while driving as fast as my stupid Volvo would go in the winter, I told them to send in a smoke diving rescue team because it's possible there's one person trapped inside the burning house, we couldn't locate my mom. You can imagine my thoughts until we found out where she was. That shook us all up and made us give more thought on fireproofing and alarms etc.

BTW this fire got started from a short cirquit (mouse?) inside a wall, behind a power outlet that had NO load, nothing connected to it that would draw current. Weird.

Jan

Very sorry to hear about that. Just keep in mind you'll see them again one day.

Kidd "Back in black. It's a fact."

Very sorry about your and your family's loss.=20

This reminds me, I have to check the batteries on our alarm. I also recommend to have some sort of fire extinguisher around. The fire spreads really quickly inside. Fire blanket is a cheap and working thing,=20 if you have time to do something about the fire.

"BergRace" wrote

Jørn, please accept my condolences and deepest sympathies for your loss.

-- Scott

Thank you all for the kind words.

Still no news on where/how the fire started. The funeral is still not scheduled due to the bodys not being released yet. The service will be small and quiet.

Jørn.

"BergRace" wrote in news:Ma6zb.992$7U1.1646@amstwist00:

My condolences on your loss.

As for hearing about it on the radio...that moment of realization of who it was is weird. I heard similarly of the death of some close family friends in a horrible crash, put 2 and 2 together and had to call my dad.

"cloud8" wrote in message news:Xns9445ADB349CE2nospamherecom@199.184.165.239...

................Hi guys........I haven't been in the right frame of mind to talk about this for the past few days. But re-reading about Joern's tragedy and now Bill's post has given me the impetus to say something here about my personal tragedy of a few days ago (Saturday). I was at a college football game Saturday night in Pittsburgh, Pa. when my sister in law called me on my cellphone to tell me that my dad had died in a horrible automobile accident in central Florida. Apparently, a 22 year old woman driving a minivan was unable to stay in her lane for some unknown reason, crossed the center line of a two lane road (rte. 415 in Volusia County) and hit my dad's Corvair van head on. Both vans were going at least 50 mph and the impact killed my 74 year old dad, probably instantly. At least that's what I'm hoping because his body was partially incinerated by the subsequent fire from the ruptured gas tank. I'm not too familiar with Corvair Greenbriar vans but I'm guessing that the gas tank is in the front just like in my two vanagons. He was always going to vintage car or airplane shows in his free time and he was on his way home to Sanford from a car show at Daytona Speedway Saturday afternoon when fate struck him down. I wasn't prepared for this, he's never been seriously sick in his entire life and he's always been one of the safest drivers (and pilots) that I've ever known. At his age, I've been more worried about him still flying his friend's Waco biplane more than anything else but I guess that you never know what's coming next next until it happens. Right now, I'm trying to come to terms with the situation where I've been letting my 20 year old son drive one of my vanagons to his college. It's a similar style van with the gas tank underneath the front........I don't know how to explain how afraid I am of this danger considering what has just happened. My youngest son wants to drive my bug when he gets his learner's permit next summer.......he loves bugs. The woman who killed my dad was in a modern minivan with an airbag and she's still alive in a hospital in Orlando. This death is still hard for me to comprehend. Anyway, I'm flying to Orlando tomorrow for the funeral in Sanford and I won't be back here in NY until Saturday. I hope that I can hold up as well as my dad would've wanted but I've never been in a situation like this, until Saturday, I still had two parents. I'm sorry to have gone on so much about this, but talking to you guys, like this, is making me feel a little better. Take care.

Tim Rogers

"Tim Rogers" wrote in news:bqj9mv$236ioo$1@ID-

46866.news.uni-berlin.de:

Sorry to hear of yet another RAMVA loss, Tim.

I guess your Dad was a real enthusiast. Here's a Corvair Greenbriar I found, just scroll down a bit.

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..................Thanks Bill. His Greenbriar was like that one only painted white. It was a somewhat rare camper version with an interior that was similar to the Westfalia VW buses from that same period in the early & mid sixties. He had completely refinished all of the woodwork inside and had rebuilt the engine during the past few years. One of my brothers who looked at it after the accident said that it looked to him like the fresh varnish might have contributed to the fire that engulfed the entire interior within about a minute after the crash. He was told that when the first fire truck arrived, the flames were so intense that no one without protective fire-fighting gear could get anywhere close to it.

"Tim Rogers" wrote >

Tim,

I really don't know what to say, as I'm not good at these types of things but please know that my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Please accept my condolences.

-- Scott

....Joern, and Tim....nothing 'humorous' from me this time....just wanted to add my condolances on your recent losses....its strange, you will find the years will roll pass...and eventually things will fade......but the memories will pop up at the damnedest time....odd things will be triggers...

...Gareth

(whose father succumbed to cancer 13 years ago new years day...)

My sympathy Timothy!

Don't know much else to say, life takes the strangest turns at times... My grandparents will be burried(the service is at) this Friday, only found out this evening, not looking forewards to that. I don't even enjoy churches, even less so priests, being non religious myself...

Hope you get through the day(funeral), in a way you feel comfortable with.

Take care. Jørn.

I'm very sorry for your loss Tim. Seems to be so that this is a=20 autumn of losses for RAMVA. Let's all hope for a better=20 aircooled year 2004.

I'm very sorry for your loss Tim. Seems to be so that this is a autumn of losses for RAMVA. Let's all hope for a better aircooled year 2004.

....................Thanks Olli. Yeah, I'm ready to start a new year and put this one to rest.

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