this morning i was abruptly awoken when one of my neighbours was banging furiously on our front door. i woke up startled and upon opening my eyes i looked out of my bedroom door and could see that my bathroom was full of smoke, i jumped up and slipped on the water in the passageway injuring my back, as i approached the bathroom, after gathering myself from the floor and opening the front door all at the same time, i saw that the cistern of my toilet was on fire! i was alone at home and hadnt used the bathroom yet. how did this happen? there was nothing in the bathroom that could have caused the toilet to catch a light... im mind boggled, my neighbour couldnt believe what she was seeing.... oh and the water i slipped on was from the pipe of the toilet that had melted and the entire flat was under water... how??

Wow! That is crazy! Glad you made it out okay.

We had a house fire Friday, The investigation should be over tomorrow. We all think it was a Toshiba laptop . We lost our pretty tonkineese girls, We traveled 6 hours to get them and picked them out a few weeks after their birth. We got them, and the other pets out of the house but the girls ran back up toward the fire. My husband saw them but didn't let me know because he knew I would run up after them, he did however tell the firefighters. The toxic smoke killed them. The firefighters did their best and even did CPR but they were gone :( My kids are all split up, some at friends, some at families, some in the hotel with us. The first few days I was bursting into tears... I still do when I see the house and think of the girls but I just feel pretty numb and displaced. Our doogy boys are in another state while we get things in order, when of them is so depressed he isn't eatting or drinking. The girls were by for the most upsetting thing we have lost and now I am supposed to make a list of everything else we have lost. I honestly don't know what all we have, I mean I get the kids things but I don't know what they kept and what they have given away , I'm feeling very overwhelmed.

Destiney, I'm so sorry you are going through this.

I went room by room to catalog every item destroyed by our fire. I used a notepad to record the loss. I even catalogued our coat hangers.

Take your time and record everything. You will rebuild, and this will become just a memory. One day at a time.

Destiney, you have my utmost sympathy! It's SO EXTREMELY difficult. Please take each day at a time. Bear in mind that although you've gone through a tragic loss, it could have been worse. Keep telling yourself and your kids: thank God for what you've been able to keep. Lean on friends and family these first few days/weeks; they want to help. You see the best of people in times like these. The fire took many of the things you love and cherish but it can't wipe out your memories. Even though our fire occurred several years ago, I can still visualize my photographs in my head, the Christmas tree each year, laughing at the table with my kids, etc. Please take good care of yourself and your family.

I must add one more thing Destiney: your kids suffered a terrible loss too. You must be strong for them. You're the adult. Be positive for them. Don't let them suffer any more than they already have. You CAN and WILL handle the pain, and it will in turn teach your children to be strong. Look forward to the future. God bless you all>

Yes - like the comment above - our house burned into the ground 7/31/15 due to an angry meth-head throwing her cigarette? butt into the tinder-dry grass on a 96 degree windy day. The RVs and trailers in the drug-settlement a half-mile west of us burnt - but with the community donations, they were replaced within a few weeks - even though the county ordinances do not permit multiple RVs/trailers on parcels. Although, as we watched out property, and house burn, two neighbors told us who started the fire, the County Prosecutor and DNR investigator have not followed through to charge anyone with the fire. . . do you sense my anger. . . The huge fire crew that responded from several jurisdictions in the state managed to get "in front" of the fire to stop it before it entered Green Diamond (Simpson Timber) - right after it burned our house into the ground - The bi-polar moods, I recognize that the other person wrote about - but 20 months later, I can talk about it, sometimes, without bursting into tears, although I am crying as I write this. Thank God, there was no loss of life (other than our little kitty, Annie Pearl, who I believe was so frightened, she either ran away, or was picked off by a predator shortly after. Our three dogs made it, sitting in the front seat of the old farm truck. The Angus cattle left on their own, managed to find a place to hang, and our burros fled to a section of the woods that didn't burn. One had her baby that night. My TW horse, that I have had over 20 years, was terrified, but survived by being tied to the truck. The chickens hunkered down, and were safe. . . We lost most of what we would identify as our "culture" - family pictures, writings (my dad when he was in grade school), a belt buckle which said "Our Darling", ivory from Alaska, my Bible my maternal grandmother had signed to me which was well over a century old, a small round table my grandfather had made. . . things of similar sentiment my husband treasured. . . the expensive clothes, furniture, tableware, etc. was theoretically replaced by our "replacement value" insurance. . . . if I could have had the energy to actually follow through listing all of the material things.

If you really want to replace something after a devastating incident, film it, with audio descriptions: do yourself a favor. I remembered everything lost, but was too incapacitated, as it turned out, to actually list all. Arguing with the insurance adjuster, who claimed he was there to help us, only induced more guilt and anger.

I don't think we can totally "insure" that we won't have a huge loss in life (fire, bad health, etc.). I think we can mitigate it, maybe. . . by CIPs, building underground, etc. . . we also need to be aware, and make conscious choices as to what we are willing to give up (a view, etc.) to live a secure life. . . . we can mitigate it.

In the end, it is (in my experience) the social system, that helps us to survive a loss like this. I will also say, that the overwhelming response by our small, wilderness community was almost shattering - the gratitude almost too much to bear - then the disappearance of this support within a couple of weeks, and, the months of trying to maintain a sense of self, living in a cluttered, dirty shop in a barn, sleeping in and watching our DVDs in the evening in the RV the insurance provided (we couldn't leave our animals untended on our farm) while we fought with the adjuster, and finally the contractor to rebuild - which is now being completed - it has caused me to do some intense soul-searching about my life, and social system, and what purpose there is here. Throughout all this, I could not help thinking of all the people who have suffered so much more than we have - the horrible wild-fires, floods, etc. It makes it hard to complain, and does encourage me to try to put this in some perspective, and get on with life - maybe in a little more balance. . .

I was 23 and had just rented my first apartment ( from my parents! ) and moved in one week earlier. I had my brand we full sized water bed. :) It was a 2 bedroom apartment I rented with a room mate. The apartment was one quarter of a 4 family duplex. We came home a few hours before to a little smoke in the common hallway which was assumed to be cigarette smoke from the downstairs tenant, Creosote in the chimney smoldered for 3 hours on a snowy February night while we slept before the smoke woke my roommate. I went from a warm bed and sprinted down the stairs to pound on doors and wake the other tenants. In seconds I was slipping barefoot in the snow. Everyone got out. The smoke alarm went off as I was sprinting down the stairs. The duplex was a total loss. I was young and dumb, I knew nothing about renter's insurance. I lost everything. I got out with the flannel nightgown on my back! Get replacement value RENTERS insurance. Keep receipts, write up an inventory, take videos of your place and all of your belongings.... open doors and drawers and closets and talk about all of your stuff. Upload it to the cloud and keep copies in multiple spots. Don't rent from relatives..... clean your chimney!