Home Again on Silver Creek

The frustrations, failures and fun of rebuilding after a fire

Category: fire

Did you know?

June 23, 2016 /

Just wanted to share a few interesting facts we learned from the forensics electrical engineer after the spent a day investigating our fire.

  • Car engines. Only about half of a car engine is made of steel. That

    My car trapped under the collapsed garage roof. Although the fire investigation was inconclusive, they suspect my car was at the root cause of the fire.

    was all that remained of my car’s engine as the rest of it melted. Those parts were aluminum, plastic and other material.

  • Number one cause of garage fires. Lithium batteries are by far the number one cause of garage fires right now, according to our investigator Most commonly, it is the result of a rechargeable battery that has been left plugged in overnight and it overheats.Screen Shot 2016-06-23 at 9.20.15 AM
  •  Melting point of copper. Copper wiring doesn’t melt until it reaches 2,000 degrees. I know this because the copper wiring had melted and the investigator couldn’t determine any electrical issues because there was nothing left.
  • Arc mapping. This is a technique used by forensic electrical enginers to find electrical faults or electrical arcs. Arc mapping assumes that when fire impinges on an electrical line  it will melt the wire insulation and cause an electrical fault at the first point that it reaches on the electrical line. Our garage got too hot and had too much damage to effectively do any arc mapping.

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What if?

June 18, 2016 /

I’m not one for “what ifs”, but since the night of the fire, there are a million thoughts running through my head about what happened and how it could have had a different outcome. So, out of that, I want to share some ideas of things I’ll manage differently moving forward.

Heirloom Jewelry. I lost some lovely, sentimental pieces of jewelry in the fire, including the diamond earrings my mom gave me on my wedding day. I was the fourth generation of women in the family to have worn them. There was also the cocktail ring that belonged to my great-aunt Doc,an amazing woman who challenged the system and went to medical school back in the 1930s. We spent an entire day searching for these pieces and found nothing. It would have been simple enough to have a small fireproof safe in my bedroom that could have changed that outcome.

I will be getting a small, fireproof safe for our next home.

I will be getting a small, fireproof safe for our next home.

The Cloud. I wish I would have backed up more things to a cloud, because we’d have a chance to save more family photos, phone contacts and other archived material from our lives. We were lucky enough to find some photos from nine years ago in a Shutterfly album, which was a fun little treasure to find.

Home Inventory. It wouldn’t have been that difficult to take some quick digital photos or video of our home. It would have helped as we try to inventory our personal property and remember what we lost. It also would have been helpful to have in the rebuilding process so we could accurately describe some of our home’s features that we love.

Fire Plan. We were lucky that we were able to get out of our house safely. The fire investigator said it easily could have had a different outcome. We hadn’t ever really talked about a plan in the event of a fire. Had we all been asleep, or if the kids were home alone, some preparation like this could have made the difference.
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Go Bears!

June 17, 2016 /

For anyone who is a Stillwater Ponies fan, those are words you don’t really want to hear, but for us, on the night of our house fire, hearing the words “Go Bears!” gave us some hope, a distraction and a sense of community.

It was probably about 3 a.m. and the firefighters were finally able to get inside the house to fight the fire. Hanna’s bedroom was at the furthest possible point from the garage, which is where the firefighters were finally able to enter the house.

Hanna’s White Bear Lake Bears hockey jersey from her U19 championship team, after being pulled from the fire.

We were camped out in our lawn chairs watching the activity when all of a sudden two fireman came running over to us and asked, “Does someone here play hockey for the White Bear Lake Bears?” Hanna responded that it was her. The two guys were so excited. They explained they were from the White Bear Fire Department (remember, there were 10 different departments called in to help), and they had been in her bedroom and saw a framed jersey.

A side note is needed here: I’m sure many of you are asking why there was a Bears jersey in our house. Well, for Hanna, wearing the Bears jersey has always come with conflicting feelings. Cut from the Stillwater High School hockey team, she found a group of girls playing u19 hockey for White Bear. Her love of the sport gave her the strength to don the Bears jersey, although she’ll always be a Pony. As the team’s assistant captain, she helped lead the team to the u19 state championship this past season.

So, back to the story. Because it was a Bears jersey, the White Bear firefighters  felt a certain obligation to save it. They smashed the frame, grabbed the jersey and ran out of the house with it. When they handed it over to Hanna, they gave us an enthusiastic, “Go Bears!”

For just a second, we all smiled. The community pride was so strong, it was a great reminder that we are so much more than the stuff in our house. We saw two fires burning that night: the one that took away all of our belongings, and the one that fuels the passion of our communities.

Go Bears!

 

 
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Avoiding A Cat-astrophe

June 15, 2016 /

500,000 pets involved in home fires every year.  Our two cats, Bandit and Elliot, are now part of that statistic. But, with a little bit of luck and their fight-or-flight instinct, they are sitting with me now as I write this.

Before I tell you how we found them, let me start by telling you a bit about our two cats. Two brothers that we got as kittens more than 11 years ago, Bandit and Elliot have always been an important part of our family.

Screen Shot 2016-06-13 at 7.54.53 AM

Bandit loves sinks. Any sink. Kitchen, bathroom, wherever!

Bandit and Elliot are like the Oscar and Felix of the feline world.

Bandit, is the sloppy, somewhat overweight, and definitely unmotivated part of the duo. With a “meow” that could be interpreted as a bit whiny and annoying, Bandit finds his way into irritating positions every day.

It starts with his need for fresh water every morning. He’ll wait in the sink until someone turns on the faucet. He thinks he’s a great homework helper, and if there’s nothing for him to do, he’ll just make sure he’s in a
place where he won’t miss any action.

Bandit, studying history

Bandit, studying history

Elliot on the other hand, is a much more refined, intellectual cat. It may be he is channeling his name’s literary inspiration, but he always carries himself with a certain sophistication. He doesn’t have time for Bandit’s antics, and he definitely doesn’t have time for Chloe’s need to chase him around the house.

The two of them are safe and sound with us now. Here’s their story:

As we ran out of the house the night of the fire, Hanna actually stopped in the doorway before we left and called their names. Leaving them in the house might have been the single most difficult part of the fire. As we watched the flames spread and engulf our home, it was really hard knowing the cats were in there.

IMG_0077.JPG

Annika and Elliot on graduation day.

The good PR person that I am, I stuck to my key message for the kids. I repeated this to them often until we found the cats:  “Cats are really smart and have great instinct. They will be fine. They either ran out the open door and are hiding, or found a safe place in the house.”

I didn’t even believe myself sometimes, but I had to say it for the kids.

Well, when we went back to the house the next morning around 9 a.m., the kids spent a lot of time looking for and calling the cats. Someone heard a faint meow coming from the house. The adults dismissed it as a bird, but Hanna was adamant it was Bandit.

My brother, Chris, followed through and crawled through the rubble to an open door that led to a back basement furnace room that was still intact. He went in, and came out with Bandit!! He held him high over his head like Mufasa held Simba in the Lion King. The cat was dirty, wet and smelly, but okay.

But our hearts sank again when we couldn’t find Elliot.

Elliot, nearly 48 hours after the fire started, finally leaves the house again.

It wasn’t until 36 hours later that we found him. We were at the house the following evening and I was doing some barn chores. Annika came along to look for the cat. She stood in the rubble looking and calling. She heard him! We thought he was also in the basement, so I started to go in, but once I got in the basement, I realized the “meow” was coming from above my head. Elliot had hid in Hanna’s bedroom and was okay.

Elliot right after his bath to remove the soot and smell.

The bedroom was on the second floor, so we had to get a ladder to get into the room to get him. Once again, Uncle Chris to the rescue. He entered the house and was able to get the cat.

TIP: the smoke smell can be removed from pets by using a rinse of hydrogen peroxide and Dawn dish soap.

 

 
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