Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement. In my short time here I have found the IAP members to be a really great group. For those that are interested, here's a summary of what happened.
The fire started early morning, probably around 5 am. We had a two car garage with a shop on one end. Actually, it was all shop - full of wood and tools - the cars got to sleep outside.
Anyway, we woke up to a fire. When I went out the door the garage doors had already burned through and both vehicles (pickup and van parked outside the garage) were on fire. I managed to get inside the van, back it away, and got the fire put out. The pickup was too engulfed in flames to get in. It's an old Ford with the gas tank behind the seat, so once the fire got inside it was all over for the truck. That old truck hauled a lot of trees out of the woods. I didn't even realize that I was kinda attached to the ugly old beast until it burned.
We live 20 miles from the nearest town, so by the time the fire trucks arrived the building was gone. I had big racks full of a variety of wood, all dry, so there was plenty of fuel. It was also an older wood building and it burned incredibly fast. I was not able to get anything out of the building - the smoke and heat was so intense you couldn't get very close.
Here's a link to some pictures of the aftermath. This was after about a day of cleanup. I didn't have the presense of mind to take any pictures during the fire. Actually, I was pretty busy at the time.
The fire started on an end wall near the doors. The only thing in that area was the breaker box so electrical is the probable cause. We had some thunderstorms as well so lightning may have contributed.
Fire is one of those things that always happens to somebody else, never you. It's a pretty big shock to wake up to. And to add insult to injury, my fishing gear burned up too.... My attampt at a lame joke.
The good news is that my family is safe and we still have a house to live in. The initial shock is over - just time to move on now. I don't think we could have done anything to prevent the fire, but all the same, the moral of the story is be safe. Take a few minutes to look things over in your shop. Prevention is sure better than the alternative.
Thanks again to everybody for your support. I still have a few bowl blanks, game call blanks, and pen blanks that were in the house. I will probably have a "fire sale" soon to help raise some funds for new tools. Maybe by fall I can get out again and cut wood. There is some killer Russian Olive burl out there just waiting for me to go get it.
