I got an early Christmas present

[mx842]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I have a couple things that may be a problem for me. One I never got a permit for the pole barn. I checked and was told I didn’t need one for a pole barn but it turned into a little more than just a barn. By the time I was done building it turned into a 5 room building. Everything was done to code as I have several friends that are electricians, pipe fitters, and mechanical mechanics that helped out. After the building was up the county inspector came by to see what this new building was doing there. They do flyovers every couple years to see what’s going on. The guy that came out just measured everything and commented on how nice the building was. Of course my taxes went up a little after he showed up but I knew it was coming. At this point I don’t know how it will go I just have to wait an see.

 

[ZTMAN]

If you have not already done so, review your insurance policy declaration page to see what your coverage and limits are for accessory buildings. Additionally, look at your policy limits and see if you covered for actual cash value or replacement cost for you lost property.

I would assume the insurance people are coming out to determine causation (and rule out arson) in attempt to preserve any subrogation rights they may have.

 

[davedj1]

Sorry for you loss. If you have any recent photos or videos of inside the shop it will help to identify your tools and belongings.

 

[LouNY]

If I get a total loss of my little shop/garage I know it will only be partially covered because the way my policy is written my out buildings and contents are covver as a percentage of my main structure. It will be about 80% of what I have in it. But to change it would require inventorying everything including spare parts fluids and such then worrying about exceeding a flammable limit. So I just go with the percentage value.

 

[hornett22]

Sorry about your loss. Hopefully it all works out with insurance company

 

[SmallChange]

So sorry.

This is a good reminder to the rest of us to do something like take a zillion photos from multiple angles to help us remember if we need to.

I find that when I start trying to remember, and start writing a list, the list helps me think of additional things.

Also, we humans are extraordinarily good at remembering our own geography, I mean we automatically keep detailed maps in our heads. You may not remember the fact that you had some particular thing in there, but before the fire if you went to grab that thing you'd probably know where to look. So, you might try sketching some maps, floor layouts showing where things were sitting or stored.

Good luck!!!!!

 

[NoTrespassing]

Fire Marshall said there was no way to determine just too much damage. All the could figure is that it must have started somewhere in the rear of the building.

MX, by now I guess you've thought about how the fire could have started. Do you have a hypothesis? What are the possibilities?

Electrical (animal damage?)
Oily Rags
Lightning
Arson
Cigarette
Saw Dust (spontaneous combustion)

I had a fireball jump out of 220 outlet while blowing aluminum dust with an air hose one time.

I don't know, maybe you don't even want to think about it. When our barn burned, we chalked it up to a heat lamp and straw.

 

[mx842]

Wow...that's hard to take just reading. How old are you, if you don't mind me asking.
I certainly hope you had enough insurance coverage and hope things can be replaced.
In my case it turned out OK, insurance company replaced part of barn roof that collapsed and replaced a shed with a larger better one and covered contents.
Neighbors lost their homes & garages last Spring, a freak tornado came through a mile away. They lived in trailers & tents for a while but things built back even better now.
Praying everything goes OK for you.

When pretty girls ask me how old am I, I just tell them, old enough. But since we are all friends and neighbors I'll just say I'm the ripe old age of 75 but I really feel more like 45 or so. I didn't slow down until a couple years ago to about 85 to 90 MPH, before that I was WFO all the time.
About 5 years ago I found out what had been bothering me most of my life. I went through 3 wives, around 40 jobs, 6 businesses and countless other failures in my life. I had a good work ethic and any work I did was 100%. The problem was that I just couldn't work around a lot of people and when They put me in a tight spot things went wrong in a hurry. As long as I was handed a job telling me what needed to be done and left alone Everything went well. PTSD is a terrible thing and I went through most of my life not knowing what was wrong with me. Then about 5 years ago my doctor gave me a bunch of papers to fill out and once it was done he referred me a veterans service representative and that's when I found out what the heck I had been dealing with all these years. Once I started going to the VA I have had a really hard time because a lot of what had been bothering me was dragged up out of the mud for me to face and it's been hard to deal with.

That's when I started to slow down a little and I don't know it's because of the drugs they put me on or if it was just old age catching up with me. At least now I know the why and it's getting a little better and easier to deal with.

Im glad this post has been a little insightful to some of the guys and gals on the board because that is why I make a lot of the threads that I do. Sometimes they may give someone ideas about a project they are working on or give ideas of what not to do.

Sorry for the rant but sometimes it just helps to talk about this kind of thing.

 

[SmallChange]

I can imagine that PTSD and a recent barn fire might be quite a chore to manage together. It doesn't help me any when circumstances happen to intersect badly with the things I deal with! But it does sound like the way you're doing things lately is a big improvement.

 

[mx842]

MX, by now I guess you've thought about how the fire could have started. Do you have a hypothesis? What are the possibilities?

Electrical (animal damage?)
Oily Rags
Lightning
Arson
Cigarette
Saw Dust (spontaneous combustion)

I had a fireball jump out of 220 outlet while blowing aluminum dust with an air hose one time.

I don't know, maybe you don't even want to think about it. When our barn burned, we chalked it up to a heat lamp and straw.

I have though about it til I'm blue in the face. I have a wood burning stove in the back that I use to heat water to pump through my floor. I hadn't started it up for the season yet. If it had been running I would maybe something went wrong there. I store about a weeks worth of wood in an open shed that is on the other side of the wall the stove is on and have wondered several times if that was a good idea but it's been that way for 10 years or more. I don't smoke but a few of the guys that stop by every now and again do. I always worried that someone may be in there smoking and drop a butt that could start a fire. I don't know if that's tha case but it's a possibility.

Another thing, I had an old radio that I found in one of my sheds where I was doing some cleaning. I took it into the shop and plugged it in and it worked better than the one that was in there. I needed to make a shelf for it to sit on but never got around to it. It was sitting on top of a AC recorvery machine that was sitting next to the doorway going into my sand blast room. Where it was sitting it had a slight lean to it because the top of the machine had a couple gages and the radio wouldn't sit level. I was leaning slightly against the door post and seemed to be fairly stable but I guess it could have fell off and landed on the floor in the sand blast room. I had two chain saws sitting on the floor along with a gal of chain lube and a metal can with 3 gals of gas in it, I know that's probably not too good of an idea but the day before I had been cutting some wood out back and when I came in I was in a hurry so I just sit that stuff in the floor rather than the put It where I normally keep that kind of stuff. If that radio did fall off it probably would have landed pretty close to the saws and gas can. I don't even know if it did fall close to that stuff weather it could cause a blaze or not. The fire marshall didn't think so but I don't see why not.

Theres always the probility that a mouse could have chewed though a wire somewhere and caused it. thats the area where I kept my dog and chicken feed and I have seen evidence of where they have been. since I started putting the feed in metal trash cans with tops I haven't noticed them that much but if it was a mouse in a wall that would be the more likely place.

Like all shops there was probably an oily rag laying around some place but I try to put then in a metal can when I'm done. Now that's me, I have two sons and a grandson that stop buy from time to time to work on something and I have found several of them in the regular trash can at times and I have fussed about it but sometimes they don't listen too well.

No lightning in the area. I guess there could be the chance someone could have flipped a cigarett butt in that pile of wood just to see what would happen but that's a stretch. I do have a couple neighbors that don't like my beagles barking sometimes and one on the other side accused me of hunting on his property and was really a D*^k head about it but that was a few weeks or so ago. Other than that I don't know and believe me I have given it a lot of thought. Anoter rant......oh well.