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House Fire -- but most of my comics and my art survived...

Started by Sharkey,

27 posts in this topic

Sharkey

Sharkey

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I've been absent from the boards for a bit and with good reason. We recently had a house fire. :whatthe:

 

My wife and I and our dogs are ok, but we lost an iguana (Zuca) in the fire :( :( :( (I can't tell you have horrible I feel about what that poor animal must have gone through) and the other iguana (Diego) suffered some burns but is recovering. We just got him back from the vet a few days ago and he's got some burns -- he looks a little like Harvey Dent -- but he seems to be doing ok, thank goodness -- eating, climbing on us, and acting like his same old extremely social self. I have no idea how he survived, he must be from Krypton. Really. We were out of town at the time, so I don't really know how the firemen found him, but we are so grateful that they did.

 

The fire was electrical and started in an upstairs bedroom/office. The entire 2nd floor of our house was heavily damaged and we lost almost all of our possessions therein (we lost all furniture, all our clothes, bedding, linens, computers, photos, office stuff, etc etc etc on the 2nd floor). Although the fire was contained primarily in one room, the heavy smoke and soot as well as the spray from the firemen pretty much wasted everything. It could have been much worse; the fire did not break through into the attic or into any adjacent rooms (it's good to live in a very old house with extremely thick plaster walls and solid hardwood doors). But the damage is mind-boggling. There's holes all over, plaster, insulation, etc. It looks like a bomb went off up there.

 

Now to the part you all are probably wondering about: Somehow most of my comics (especially the stuff in boxes) and my art (that framed and that in portfolios) dodged the bullet and were not destroyed (although I definitely lost some things (like anything that was out in the open, such as my entire TPB collection that was on bookshelves and bookcases - hopefully some of them can be cleaned and de-smoked) and had some things damaged, like all my statues that now look like they are attendees of an Al Jolson convention. I had just pulled out some portfolios and other things to sell, and that stuff is all trashed. But all my art made it through, and I am truly, truly grateful for the limited exposure and damage.

 

My framed art was all in very high-quality (basically museum quality) matting and framing with museum-quality glass. I can't stress the importance of this this enough. In the hallway right outside the room that had the fire was my framed Avengers 3 page. The frame was covered in black soot that covered the glass (it was completely black), it had been sprayed with water from the firemen, and it had been knocked off the wall probably as they made their way through the smoky house to the fire. Other pieces had some spray, were dripped on, covered with soot, and the mattes are smoky, but the art inside is ok, thanks to them being mounted and then matted which helped protect them from the back, and they all had glass and were in metal frames. I am very fortunate. My wife had some art pieces in her office. Everything she had in frames either burned, melted, or the glass got so hot it broke and the art underneath was burned or scorched. Our Mexican folk art and papier-mache pieces and Thai art? Blackened and toasty.

 

If you've never had a house fire, let me tell you it's very destructive, even to the areas that aren't directly affected by the fire. In our house, the room where the fire was is extremely burned and scorched from the high heat, all the plastic in it is melted down (my wife's desk looks like a Dali painting), the walls scorched about a half inch into the plaster, and the walls wrecked from the fire and some of the water (fortunately they didn't have to use a lot of water so we did not get water damage on the 1st floor). All that plastic, wood, plaster, paint, and stuff that burns got in the air and permeated everything in the house. It made its way through our ventilation system so every room has smoke damage, even the basement. Everything got covered with a fine layer of soot and reeks of an acrid, chemical smoke, even things in closets. It gets on EVERYTHING and appears to be difficult to impossible to remove. That's what they mean when they say things are "smoke damaged." It's going to take a while to get things right. Although we are still extremetly lucky we didn't lose the whole house and everything in it.

 

I'm a bit overwhelmed with the processes dealing with the insurance company, inventorying, planning with the contractors, etc, therefore, I probably won't be on the Boards much in the coming few months, and if I am it'll be pretty limited. I am planning to sell off most if not all of my remaining comics, just to clear out some things (I suddenly feel a zen-like urge to divest myself of personal possessions) and generate a little extra cash for the remodel. Since half the house will be torn up, we will probably go ahead and have the contractor do some other things we were thinking of doing that have nothing to do with the fire rebuild, like revamp the kitchen.

 

I don't know how often I'll be reading the various board threads (well, probably the marketplace if I sell stuff), but if you need to reach me it's probably best to shoot me a PM or an email, at least for the next three or four months.

 

I am still planning to be at Wizard World Chicago, so I hope to see y'all there.

 

Best regards,

Steve

 

 

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Nexus

Nexus

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Hi Steve,

 

Wow. I can't even imagine. Very sorry you have to go through this, but grateful that you and your wife are safe. Take care of your house, we'll see you when you get everything settled.

 

Felix

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Enforcer

Enforcer

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I'm very sorry to hear about your fire and the loss of a beloved pet. Thank God it wasn't any worse. I've got a lot of firemen in my family and have heard many horror stories. Good luck to you in the coming months!

 

Chris

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adamstrange

adamstrange

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I'm sorry to hear about the fire and glad you and your wife are safe.

 

Be very careful about signing anything with your insurance company until you are confident that is the right agreement for you. Smoke damage is impossible to remove, whether from books or walls.

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tth2

tth2

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Steve, sorry to hear about the fire. Main thing is you and your family were okay. Everything else is just stuff, although a huge pain in the butt, although it's great to hear the comics and art survived okay.

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Sharkey

Sharkey

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Thanks everyone, I deeply appreciate the kind thoughts for me and my family.

 

It definitely could have been worse, and I am incredibly grateful that it wasn't, especially since we weren't at home when it happened. And I agree that stuff is just stuff -- much less important than the lives and health of loved ones and pets, and we'll just have a job ahead of us to replace it the things we lost, and find new things to appreciate. Although I had to admit the last thing on my mind right now is acquiring more stuff.

 

I also have to say from an OA perspective, it makes me think how close some wonderful examples of Kirby art came to going up in smoke. Which in turn makes me think that things like this belong in a museum where they can be protected, not in somebody's house where they can go up in a minute. So I have a little collector's soul searching to do about that.

 

It's amazing how the fire affects things, and how the fire department forensics expert was able to walk us through how it happened. Completely turning off the emotional connection, it's fascinating.

 

Gordon Christman is gonna get some work from me, since my wife had a couple of Michel Gagne original pencil pieces from his "Insanely Twisted Rabbits" series that got scorched. I am not sure they are restorable but I'm going to try.

 

Adam, you seem to speak from experience. The bedroom my wife used as an office is where it started, and here clothes were all in the closets in that room. All trashed. My clothes, however, were in another closet in another bedroom that wasn't directly affected by the fire. All my clothes have a fine later of soot anywhere the smoke could settle on them, and they smell awful. We tried washing them with everything from oxyclean to ammonia and the smell won't go away. I even had some suits and dress clothes I had just gotten back from the dry cleaners that were still in plastic bags and the smell permeated those. I took them back to the dry cleaner and they couldn't get the smell out. So yeah, it seems to be pretty doggone persistent. So making lemonade out of the lemons, I guess I get a new wardrobe....

 

Steve

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delekkerste

delekkerste

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Sorry to hear about this Steve, glad you and your wife are ok and your dogs too.

 

Likewise, Steve. Sorry to hear the news, but glad to hear that you made it through safely. Good luck with everything. :wishluck:

 

Gene

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TMNT

TMNT

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I know you mentioned that the fire started in the office and that it was electrical, but after walking through with the forensics expert, would you care to share how exactly it started. From the sounds of it, it seems like just a freak accident but I'm curious to the know details (if anything to try to prevent it from happening in my home!)

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westform

westform

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Steve; glad you and family are safe and best wishes for the recovery. Remember time heals all. Give yourself time to get past the shock before you act.

 

A couple of months ago this winter, my wife and I were caretaking her parents house here in town. One day when we checked on it, most of the house was flooded. The water came spraying in from the ceiling and rushing down walls from above as the roofs here are flat and they had a solar panel hot water heater that sprang a huge leak that was roof mounted. What a mess! Everything was wet, warped, mildewy. All paper and books, etc. were basically back to pulp! Many of their possessions were lost. They cut their trip short to help us deal with the situation and the recovery team got to work. The lemonade is that they have a new heating and electrical system and a few other updates to the house and it looks good or better than before. Yes, it has been a stress and a loss, but they really seem to have adjusted and are moving on from the experience. I hope you have some help and with time you guys can overcome what is an emotional and physical punch to your lives.

 

Anyway, take care, Dan

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MedicAR

MedicAR

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Steve, make sure you ventilate the house any time you're there. That smoky smell isn't just unpleasant, it's dangerous. It's full of carcinogens. Getting a new wardrobe is stongly recommended, even if most of the smell comes out, you don't want to keep that stuff in the house where you can breathe the fumes.

 

 

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