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The neighbors across the street from me have a large log home. It is on fire. A neighbor south came banging on my door, scared me.... they live south of the home fire. They called the fire department but didn't know if anyone was inside the home. It's a man and his daughter living there and she's a hospice nurse (took care of my Mom) and she works overnight shifts. So she wasn't home. I reached her Dad - he was out for the evening -- and also reached her.

Fire is still active but looks like it's going to be the living room area and kitchen destroyed. Sadly they just got a new French bulldog baby, three months old and they have a Chiweenie doggy too and both are dead. It seems the Dad left a space heater on in the living room. They had been asking me to come see the new baby puppy but I didn't make it over to see it. I am glad no 'people' are hurt but it breaks my heart the puppies didn't survive. When I told the neighbor south of the fire that there were puppies inside - before the fire trucks got here -- he kicked in the front door but it was too late to save them.

Oh Jeaniegirl,

I'm so sorry! I feel for your neighbors who have now lost so much.

I know it's traumatic for you too to witness, but will healing to be there in support for them.

So sorry for their loss!

Those poor puppies!! So sorry to hear of their loss. I hope they can salvage some of their pictures from the house.

"When I told the neighbor south of the fire that there were puppies inside - before the fire trucks got here -- he kicked in the front door but it was too late to save them"

I'm so glad nobody was hurt but those poor babies.

Such a devastating thing to experience made so much worse dealing with the loss of their pups.

Yes it is a tragedy. House is unlivable now, of course. Last emergency vehicle didn't leave until 4 a.m.

They are very nice people. A man and his daughter and he has two other daughters living nearby - so they have family. His wife, also a nurse, died a few years ago. I get invited over for cookouts and occasionally go. The RN Hospice nurse daughter was so helpful with my Mom and it was so good having her across the street. The man is a Vietnam Marine vet and is sort of quiet about his views - but he told me last summer he does not carry homeowner's insurance as he is sort of anti-corporation. His property has no mortgage - so he said if he had damage, he'd just build another home. He's a hoarder of vehicles and has 17 vehicles scattered around his 5 acre property - mostly hidden in the woods and trees. He is also kindhearted and helps neighbors. He's taken down two large trees for me that would have cost me a lot of money to get done. He did it for the firewood.

A few months ago their gentle Doberman Pinscher girl passed from cancer. They are all dog people like me - and her death hurt them. So the new little French bulldog was to help their grief. Both dogs who perished were little and low to the ground. The house is large so I wonder if they escaped to other rooms but the smoke still got to them. I am so sad about their loss. I understand from the neighbor who called the fire department that their fear was the flames would reach outside and get the dry trees on fire and possibly spreading to all the vehicles - which they assumed has gasoline in the tanks. The entire road of 13 residents - we would have all been in danger. It's been very dry here and lot of leaves everywhere. I could see ER vehicles all over his property checking the outside. They have a huge metal barn that he's converted half of it into living space and it's unharmed so they can live there while rebuilding.

[This message edited by Jeaniegirl at 5:13 PM, Sunday, December 17th]

Wow that’s terrible. (And space heaters are a terrible thing!) And unfortunate he didn’t have insurance, but hopefully they can rebuild soon.
So happy all the humans survived and sad that the pups are together over the bridge. It’s a real trauma and will hurt for a long time. :-(

really glad the wind didn’t take it to any other homes, too!

People really are wonderful. I posted on the NextDoor app and donations are coming in. A local church with a free clothing store is helping and people can drop of donations of clothing and necessities there. I will pick up the items for them. The house is literally gutted and it broke my heart to see inside. While the bedrooms did not burn, the firemen had to rip out bedroom ceilings to contain the fire, ruining all their bedding and clothing with water and smoke damage. A home fire is so horrible, to see ruined items dragged outside on the lawn. My heart hurts for them.

[This message edited by Jeaniegirl at 10:26 PM, Sunday, December 17th]

Trying to recall the biggest issues back when I had a fire in my home. Despite having good insurance there was a heapload of work that I had to do:

Sorting through stuff and cleaning. Even if the fire was limited to one area, the smoke, soot, ash and all that can leave traces and smells in every remote area of the home. Chances are they will need to go through each and every room and decide what needs to be cleaned (probably everything), what needs to be washed, what needs to be washed before it can be determined if it’s salvageable and what needs to be trashed.

Then there are ceilings and walls that need cleaning, furniture deep-cleaning, pictures wiping down and frames cleaned… the list is endless. Just look around whatever room you are in now and imagine that EVERY single thing in there needs cleaning. Then multiply that with however many rooms are still functional in that house.

So offer to come over and help with the sorting. He or his D can group into trash, clean and so on, and you basically bag the stuff and get it moving. Like to the trash or to yours (and all the neighbors willing to help) washing-machines.

Or help wiping down the ceiling and walls.

or stack the truck taking the trash and help dispose of it…

Basically… all the labor-intense tasks that took my family forever to do before we felt staying at home wasn’t a health-hazard.

(I use a cpapp machine when sleeping and noticed that for the first week or so I had to change filters daily because of soot. I normally change filters every couple of months… Due to this I had the others sleep at a different location for a week)

Edited to add:
Or offer to clean furniture and/or carpets. Go rent a carpet-cleaning machine and spend a day cleaning. This is a typical labor-intensive but quite easy job, and the cost will put you out all of 20 bucks or so…

[This message edited by SI Staff at 2:33 PM, Monday, December 18th]

Bigger, it's such a tragedy to lose old family photos and keepsakes.

This family have no walls left to clean in 3/4th of their home. Gutted. They came over last night and spoke of hopefully fixing the home and my thoughts are it's just not fixable. But I know they want to try. The dad has a great, large metal building which he's converted to a sort of man cave. It has a kitchen area but no bathroom or bedrooms. I had printed out some photos of such structures being converted to beautiful homes, lofted bedrooms, etc. He seemed to take an interest in doing that. He has beautiful 5 acres of land with lots of beautiful trees and great wildlife so it would still be 'home.' I feel so bad for him as he is a 'doer' and likes to do things himself but is now facing lung cancer with biopsies this week coming up. The sad thing is, if he had homeowner's insurance, he could already have a temporary home with the delivery of a large motor home or travel trailer to reside in while trying to settle his health issues along with the fire.

I am so glad there was no wind when the fire started as our entire country road and homes could have possibly been under threat. The smoke was very still and slowly floating around and intense. I had to open windows and start fans to clear smoke out of my home and I'm just across the road, about four football fields away. I cannot endure the smoke with my breathing issues and had to use my nebulizer a lot yesterday and last night. Our area consists of a lot of cedar and pine trees and while beautiful, they are a huge threat during a fire.

They had a little family ceremony and buried the two precious puppies yesterday. That added much to the sadness. People are rallying to help which warms my heart.

[This message edited by Jeaniegirl at 7:00 PM, Monday, December 18th]

Maybe you can help them by including them at meal times, or organizing a meal train?

Also, since he's a veteran, he should be able to get assistance from the local American Legion or VFW. Ours does things like raffles or poker runs to raise money, and lots of the guys are glad to do manual labor to help out. They might offer to do things like sort through belongings, like Bigger mentioned.

We're working on downsizing and building a home next year, so we're looking at options for where to live while we do that. My H mentioned some travel trailers that are really nice, but inexpensive because they've been totaled by hail (still perfectly livable, just dinged up) or don't have titles. Like $5k for what would usually be about a $50k trailer. Lots of people around here use them on their deer leases. Maybe that's an option for him?

I hope he gets good results from his biopsies.

SacredSoul, all wonderful ideas that I will pass along. Someone started a gofundme so that will help with immediate costs. And people are donating clothes. They aren't fancy people. Daughter is a Hospice RN and I rarely see her out of scrubs. He's a sweat shirt type guy (retired) so it's fairly easy to find clothing for them. He was a Vietnam marine and his flag is flying high over there today. I saw him this morning just standing over there looking at what is left. It has to be so difficult to look at. It is for me and it's not my home.

His biopsies are Friday. I am so hoping he gets good news. He and his daughter co-own the home. They are both such decent people and hard workers.

Jeanie…I don’t mean to seem uncaring about their situation, but please be careful about going over there. The air quality can’t be good for you with your recent issues.

You can still do so much to help "from a distance".

Whatsright, thank you. The night of the fire there was no wind so the smake was very heavy and dense. I stayed inside. When I did go over, I wore a mask and just walked to look in what is left of the front door. A home fire is so sad and the smell is just horrible.