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Fires Out West Here...Again!

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:23 am
by Maureen
Sorry folks, but I've been absent from the board for a very good reason.

The fires here in the Reno area have been horrible this last week! We've had quite a few friends that have had to evacuate pretty quick! They've all been told that we'll take them and their fur friends out here. I've had sort of a revolving door as far as pets and people since Sunday.

I haven't really had time to keep an eye on national news.

It got worse today. My youngest brother called me in a panic. A fire broke near his home, actually, right next door. When he left for work this morning, he found his neighbor wandering around his home asking for help. She does this on a regular basis, all of her cookies aren't in the same jar, if ya know what I mean. He didn't have time to help her out this morning, he had to get to work. He called his wife to make sure that the home was locked before she left for work. They don't always do that, because they are in a very rural area.

He called me about 1:30 pm. We both went flying out to his home. He was working fairly close to where I live. He heard something about a fire in East Washoe Valley, and called his local store/bar/video store/pizza place. Like I said, he's in a very rural area. Mel said the fire was very near his house. He beat me out there by 45 minutes!

The volunteer fire department got there as soon as they could. She burnt her home down to the ground! They are on 1 acre parcels out there, that gives some defensible space, if that space is kept up!

I lent them our rototiller, weed eater and other tools 2 months ago, again. I had lent these out to them last year. They had at least two sides of the home landscaped. The back of the home opened onto a shed. That's gone. He lost about 2/3 acre of acre of land and all of his sheds. He had 2 others. The fire got so close that it took out most of his windows and of course damaged his siding. His home is much older than his neighbors home! She's only been there for 15 years. His home has been there since 1980!

He lost his famous motorcycle, Hoss, it was in one of the sheds. That's the bike that he crashed and spent a month in the hospital over. It also destroyed all of the tools that I lent him. no biggie really, but he only had insurance on the home itself.. grrrrrr!

The bad news is that he didn't pay attention to his home owners insurance. Only his home is covered. Not the sheds or contents.

Homeowners insurance needs to be looked at yearly, very closely!

Losing the tools that I did is not a big deal! Except I have to replace them for our use very soon. He still has somewhat of a home or roof over his head for now! All of his Winter storm windows were out in the sheds, they aren't covered. He has to replace his front door, broken down to recuse his dogs. Most of his large windows were shattered, and his swamp cooler. He had a window cooler that was melted! Not nice when we're looking at 90+ degrees.

Please folks, keep your insurance up to date yearly. You never know what can happen!

I'll be around when I can, but he's gonna help, as well as others right now. I gotta be there for them!

Maureen 8)

RE: Fires Out West Here...Again!

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:24 am
by Harry
Hi

The fires out there are getting lots of news coverage.

Stay safe and let's hope for rain.

Harry

RE: Fires Out West Here...Again!

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:37 am
by Yanita
Hey Maureen,

So sorry to hear about your brother. Is the neighbor lady ok?

I remember Hoss, cost him alot of pain and agony a couple years ago.

We have had some well needed rain the past couple days, it has limited my computer time, major ground lighting here. Had some tornado warnings, and been listening to the local fire dept sirens.

Not sure what happened but cable and telephone went out yesterday afternoon and the power was interrupted sometime last night!

The plus side is that the last couple days we have gotten some well needed rain!

Insurance policies...everything is in order with us! Hubby cringes when he sees them out, he knows that as we do improvements or add something to the structures it is going to cost him again...

Stay safe and let us know how your brother and others are doing.

Yanita

RE: Fires Out West Here...Again!

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:53 am
by kashton
Maureen,
Hope everything is ok there now. I know everyone here dreads the sound of thunder and lightning. That always means a forest fire is gonna happen.

You are a very giving person to take in the people and pets. I know it can be very tuff on you as well. Make sure you don't overdue it. You need your rest too!

RE: Fires Out West Here...Again!

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:38 am
by Maureen
Hey guys, real long day around here!

Sean's house, my younger brother is a mess, but nothing that can't be fixed. He just realized today that he had a lot of our mother's stuff in his sheds. No big deal really, I have the really important stuff that can't be replaced. Outside of a table that belong to my grandmother, passed onto my father. That hurts, but, he wouldn't let me or the other kids have it. His wife doesn't do anything old. It has to be brand new and top of the line with a label on it. Personally, I like stuff with personality and history. Like I said, that hurt. Oh well, it was meant to be!

Harry, rain isn't forecasted here in the near future. The last measurable rain was back in April, and that wasn't much at all! We've got dry T-Storms forecasted though! That's lightening and thunder without rain.

Yanita, the neighbor lady is fine. They are still investigating the fire, but right now it looks like she set the fire to get attention. My brother is kicking himself for not taking the time to take care of her yesterday. In her mental state, she thought everyone deserted her and she decided to get attention in a very bad way. Basically, she was mad at Sean for not stopping and checking things out for her yesterday. Most days he tries to do that for her. He couldn't yesterday. She lost her whole home. Her other half went to jail on an outstanding warrant. They're still investigating the source of the fire, but all things point to her at this time.

One other thing that I forgot to mention last night, he rents his acre of land, so anything over and above the home aren't covered on his homeowners insurance. But, at the same time, he erected and built those sheds, they should have been included in an updated policy. Like Yanita mentioned, you cringe, or spouses do at the added cost, but it really does pay off in the long run! It would have most likely cost him another $100 year to insure the sheds. Now he has to rebuild the sheds, and replace all contents on his own!

We'll be working on that over the next few months! Right now, he has to replace the power pole going into his home. It burnt down and the power company is not responsible for that. Then we'll work on doors and windows!

Kaston, everything is far from okay right now! We have one fire burning over 2000 acres to the North of us. It's about 20 miles away. It's burning desert sage right now, and not threating homes. The Hawken fire was at 2900 acres, last I checked. It's burning to my Southwest. It's burning up into the mountains right now, but the high winds today can turn it back down into Reno at any time. We've had wind gust up to 45 miles an hour here.

We're just neighbors helping neighbors here! We always have evacuation centers for humans. The Red Cross is always on top of that. When it comes to animals, we all have to chip in to help each other out. We have the room and the acreage. We just do what we can to help out. It's really hard for most people to leave their homes, not knowing their fur babies have a place to go these days!

If we can take of 5 or 6 extra pets, it's no skin off my nose these days! The pet parents can come visit anytime and the pets are well cared for. That's one less thing they have to worry about right now.

Speaking of that, I have fur parents coming out right now to check on their little babies!

Yep, it's really late at night!

I'll check in when I can!

Maureen 8)

RE: Fires Out West Here...Again!

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:43 am
by JD
15,000 fire firefighters are in operations nationwide. As of the 18th, over 70 fires of 100 acres or more nationwide and our National fire alert system going to level 5. So far we have been very fortunate in our end of the Sierras.

We're all pulling for you for you, Maureen. As kashton said, remember to take care of yourself, too. It is great that the local volunteer fire dept. was able to save Sean's home. From the sounds of it, it was a very close call.

There are a lot of pictures showing the casino and city lights with the hills on fire in the background. A lot of pictures of the Caughlin Ranch homes with the fire very close. Pretty scary stuff.

Take care and be safe.

JD

RE: Fires Out West Here...Again!

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 6:14 pm
by Sylvia
Sorry to hear of the fires and your families loss. BUT, 10% of your possessions are normally covered stored away from home. You could likely file a claim on your own HO policy for the cost of your tools, but it could cause your rates to increase.

anyway, just a FYI ...

RE: Fires Out West Here...Again!

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:39 pm
by Maureen
Fire and rehab update!

The fire at the base of Mount Rose, near Caughlin Ranch is finally laying down a bit today. We could almost breath freely! Heavy smoke in the area makes things really miserable in the Summer because you don't dare open you windows. At the same time, no matter what, you can smell smoke. It's worse than allergies. The winds here this Summer have been are worst enemy. They've been blowing daily with at least 30 mile an hour gusts.

Yep JD, we are at level 5 right and that's expected to last well into Sept maybe even thru Oct this year. I know you guys are just as dry as we are this year. Our valley sits high above Reno and we have a great view of the downtown casinos. We have a perfect view of the fire. It is very scary!

We got the new power pole in tonight at Sean's house. The power company will come and inspect that tomorrow and turn the power on again for him. They replaced the other power poles today. There were 5 of them burnt down. It's just a short story. No one is saying much right now

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/200 ... /107180086

Tomorrow after work, we start on repairing the doors. His back door was a typical mobile door, outswing. He's going to replace that with an inswing back door. Then the front door that the firemen broke into. The frame is gone. It was an old 80's cottage type front door. They want to upgrade. After we get that done, Then it on to replacing 10 windows in the home! He only had one window that wasn't damaged! It's gonna be a long few weeks for us!

Sylvia, thanks for the info, but that was just as I expected. It's just not worth filing a claim for that stuff. Since we're all chipping together and doing the work ourselves, he doesn't need to hire a contractor. When his home is up to snuff, he'll replace my tools for me. He gets us out there every night for the next few weeks to help out. He'd do the same for me!

Off to eat, fall into bed and start it all over again tomorrow!

Maureen

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RE: Fires Out West Here...Again!

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:11 am
by Sylvia
Fires near you are always scary to me. As a child my aunt Kate used to take me to Mt Rose once per summer after hitting Virginia City. We'd eat pasties from the pasty store at home in Grass Valley that she'd heat up again on the car hood :~) We would also drink water from some secret waterfall that was off the beaten path by the side of the road.