Day 15 -- Photo Hunt Ruined

The theme for this week is ruined. This is our ruined well house at the place we had outside of Danevang. The details of the fire that destroyed this structure and all it contents follow the pictures.

The fire happened in May 2005. It was a dry spring that year. The grass under the fence was tall and brittle. We had cut down an old pecan tree and Robert wanted to burn the stump out.

On a still Saturday, he set the stump on fire, but then remembered he had told a friend he would come out and help him on his place. He popped into the house and told me he had lit the stump and to check on it occasionally. This was about 10:00. About 11:00 I thought I would attend a Pampered Chef party a friend was having. As I got to the car to leave I thought about that stump. I poked my head around the edge of the well house and saw one thin line of smoke lazily make it way up. I thought to myself, "That fire is going out. I'm late, I'm leaving."

About an hour into the party my cell phone rings. It is Robert's former boss. He wants to know where Robert and I are. Wondering why he needed him, I told Todd, Robert was helping a friends and I was at a party. At that point he tells me he has just driven by our place and two fire trucks were there and black smoke was boiling up.

Exit me from the party. I was about ten miles from the house and I made that ten miles in record time all the time calling Robert's cell phone and leaving him messages.

When I pulled up the fire department from El Campo was pulling out and the Danevang fire department was rolling up hoses in preparation to leave.

I couldn't believe my eyes. About all I could say was, "Oh, my goodness. Dear God."

I got to visit with the fire chief and a deputy sheriff. I kept thinking he was going to give me a ticket of some sort. Mostly for being so stupid as to leave a burning stump (even if there was only a little tiny thin puff of smoke). He didn't; part of me wishes he had.

A breeze had fanned the fire which blew into the grass where it followed the fence line to the well house that was insulated with Styrofoam. Now Styrofoam is a wonderful insulator, but it burns easily and it burns hot. Hot enough that all the lawn equipment inside the well house had their tires totally melted and burned up. We lost several thousand dollars worth of stuff --- lots of it junk, some of it good. Had to have a new well pump put in along with a new water filtration system. As bad as it was it could have been worse. The garage, storage barn and house were all spared from our mistake.

We felt/feel stupid that we did this. We have been teased by all of our children over it. We have been reminded endlessly about all the Smokey Bear safety rules concerning fire. Robert has been banned for life from playing with fire and I have no idea where any matches are.