So, the wife calls me last night during the town board meeting (She knows better) very excitedly trying to explain to me that the garage next to our garage at my rental house is on fire. About the same time one of the other board members who is a volunteer fireman pager goes off. He jumps up and says I gotta go!, as I sat back down for just a brief moment and then decided I better go too! It was probably only six blocks from the meeting to my rental after about halfway there I could see a Very bright glow in that direction. I Pretty much slid to a halt parking so as to leave plenty of room for the fire trucks. The building that was engulfed in flames was a fairly small old chicken coop but probably barely 20 feet from my garage and maybe 30 from my reloading shed. My wife’s youngest son (so my step son basically) is my renter. I directed him into the garage to grab two cases of 1 pound canisters that would be best if they didn’t get very hot and place them in a safe location while I ran to the side of the house to see if I can get a garden hose going to try and keep my two buildings cool. I got the hose hooked up to the hydrant but it’s too short to reach any place so I ran to the other side of the house there was a hose there hooked it up but it was full of ice as the temperature was probably 15°. About then a neighbor from across the street showed up and I asked him if he had a garden hose he ran back and got it and was back in a heartbeat we hooked it to the short one and he proceeded to try and keep my garage cool as I was trying to work the kinks out of the garden hose. We was having to work into the wind and flames and heat lots of heat! Just about the time we got it going and he was able to do something The building that was in flames collapsed really showering us with sparks, flames, and a very intense heat! That forced him to take the hose around the other side of the garage a little bit more on the upwind side. By this time my garage is smoking and the eaves are just starting to burst into flames but he was able to kind of keep them beat down a little bit until the fire department showed up. The chicken coop by this time is basically just a pile of burning lumber and There is a large standing dead elm trunk that is burning quite well. The Fire department was able to cool the pile of rubble and focus on my garage but the eaves had started they had to pull the soffit down and spray up inside quite bit on my garage. I feel that if we had been maybe two minutes slower with a garden hose and the fire department was one or two minutes slower arriving my garage would’ve been pretty well lit and beyond saving and it sits close enough to the house that would’ve been the next problem given the wind direction. If this whole scenario would have occurred four or five hours later in the middle of the night The whole block might’ve gone up in flames. It’s been just terrible dry here. Best guess by the fire chief, and one that I can go along with for the cause is a spark or ember out of the stove pipe on that property which seems reasonable given the wind direction. The burned building had no electricity or fuel of any kind connected to it. Was basically being used as a dog house and had straw bales and wood in it. Could have been a lot worse……
That could easily been much worse. To heck with the meeting in times like this as this is a much higher priority. Even have some roasted venison now!
Glad you got lucky and didn't have any more damage. I thought you were going to say they had a heat lamp in the chicken house/dog house and it had lit off the bedding. Everyone check your garden hoses and drain them! Never know when you're gonna need them for something much bigger than you ever planned.... We have been really dry here for this time of year....don't believe we've ever been this dry in December and run this many fires. But there's a bit of wet stuff falling this am finally!
Yeah I had a smart aleck comment about the deer jerky being near done. But that had to be scary scary! Good job on everyone for participating and being successful!!
So glad you were close and able to save your garage. That could have been real ugly. Very lucky. And glad y'all were safe...
