Neighbor/firewooder's shop burned this AM....

[MotorSeven]

Besides loosing a bunch of tools his saws, 5-6 Stihls were also lost.

My wife woke me up at 0355 & said she heard a "pop" down in the pasture. We have occasional spotlighter poachers that shoot deer from the road then leave 'em laying so I assumed that's what it was. Stepped out on the deck and looked down and saw this:

I put a green arrow on his house & a red one on the shop. Even though the road runs between them so they are very close together. I called it in and headed down there to see if there was anything I could do & to make sure they were ok. He said it had been burning for a half hr & the fire Dept was just rolling up(not a slam at all on the fire dept, it's voluntary and we are extremely rural).
The scene looked like this at about this time(wife took pic's from our deck):

I drew the road in & blue arrows for the fire trucks. They ran out of water within 20 min & the fire flared back up in his second shop which is adjacent to the engulfed one. He is a mechanic, has a lot of parts cars laying around & a big pile of tires which were all on fire. It's been raining here all day/night so we have no idea of how it started.

He heats with wood so loosing his saws is a pretty big blow. Now i just have to figure out which saw I am going to permanently "loan" him. He is caught up for the season on wood which is good so we have time to figure something out. I'll be there in the morning to see if we can salvage any part of the saws. I will list any use-able parts here on AS if we manage to find any. More pic's will follow.........

 

[tex]

That's definately too bad. At least no-one was hurt, and the house survived by the sounds of it. There may be a silver lining of some new stuff/new ways of doing things if his insurance co. treats him right.

 

[Foxfire]

I can't even imagine...

 

[TreeGuyHR]

Hmmmm

Makes me think I should get on it and re-do the stove in my shop. Has some missing fire brick and a crack, plus it's technically too close to the wall (which I did cover with cement board over the sheet rock). Even with the hollow round plate around the ceiling transition and double-wall pipe going through the attic space and roof, it would probably fail inspection --- plus I have flammable gear and what not (not fuel!!) stored within a few ft. Been a few years since I had the flue cleaned too.:msp_ohmy:

 

[Garmins dad]

Frick that hard to swallow..

 

[mizzou]

Hmmmm

Been a few years since I had the flue cleaned too.:msp_ohmy:

Same here. I recently have learned the hard way. Had a flue fire about a week ago and am on propane now. Fortunately I just ruined a flue and damaged some brick on the outside of chimney, gonna be expensive though.

Too bad about the op's neighbor, hope everyone was alright.

 

[Mac88]

Sorry to hear that. At least the home in intact and no one got hurt. The rest is all replaceable. You're a good neighbor for helping him out.

 

[MotorSeven]

No one got hurt, but he lost a lot of stuff, air compressor, tire changer, milling machine, valve grinding machine, 4 wheeler, several ride-on lawn mowers, tools and misc parts. Turns out 2 of his saws were in the back of his truck & one in the other shop, so it looks like he lost 3-4 & his chainsaws grinder. Easy $10k burned up and no, no insurance on his outbuildings. We can't figure out how it started since his breakers were off in that shop.

It's still too hot to rummage through looking for saw carcasses. I doubt any parts survived since aluminium engine blocks melted on the mowers & boat motors.

 

[zogger]

man, does that suck!

Oily rags maybe, who knows.

 

[mdavlee]

That really sucks. What part of east TN is that in? I'm in east TN myself.

 

[kyle1!]

Not to start a fight but why no insurance? Seems alot is invested in tools etc and I would hate to lose that investment. Don't like the insurance game but play it with my stuff.

Brian

 

[griffonks]

Most fire policies have coverage for out buildings and always some for stuff that is away from the home. I think he should have an attorney read his policy.... Maybe the insurer excluded coverage because of a wood stove or OWB though. This is really lousy.

 

[Mac88]

Arson? It's awfully close to the road. Flash and run. Does the fellow have any enemies or has he ticked off some local hoodlums? Just sayin'.

 

[allstihl]

lost my shop to a fire in 89. had a long fight with the ins co. it sucks.

 

[MotorSeven]

Mdavelee I'm off of 25E between Morristown & Tazewell.

Kyle, I don't know, that's what he told me. My policy cover out buildings, but I have to say his was in pretty bad shape. The agent might have inspected it & said "no way Jose".

Mac, arson is a possibility, but I can't see these retards out in the pouring rain trying to start a fire, but stranger things have happened...........

And it's still pouring rain, creek is already going over it's banks, looks like my pastures are going to flood this time......{sigh}

 

[cowroy]

Mdavelee I'm off of 25E between Morristown & Tazewell.

I grew up in Grainger Co., but now live in east Knox. Still probably only 45-50 mins. away from ya. You talkin like Thornhill area?

 

[kmcinms]

Molotov cocktail

I'm with Mac88, close to the road as that is, someone had enough of seeing all his junk and looks like they gassed it, then bombed it. Could have been a peed off customer :msp_angry: Dang, that sucks. :msp_angry:

 

[MotorSeven]

I grew up in Grainger Co., but now live in east Knox. Still probably only 45-50 mins. away from ya. You talkin like Thornhill area?

Yep Thorn Hill, just over the Hancock county line.

Pastures are all now flooded......more rain on the way. Temps are dropping tomorrow, sun is supposed to show it's face this weekend. I'm ready to get in the woods and do some more sawing.........

 

[mdavlee]

I'm up above Rogersville a little ways. Maybe 35 minutes to Bean Station.

 

[MotorSeven]

We got almost 4" since Monday....had enough. This road/County bridge leading to my place & my 9 ac pasture(lake) to the right:

[video]http://s271.beta.photobucket.com/user/motorseven/media/Farm/Jan2013Flood_zpsf93fe375.mp4.html[/video]

All 20 ac of my pasture is under water...........