First off; Brian I will kick you in the nutsack repeatedly when I see you.
Secondly; We didn't lose everything as we originally thought. Due to the help from Mary's family, who stood guard over the house with shotguns until daylight, and the help from neighbors, some family, and a dozen or more total strangers, they were able to get almost all of our possessions out of the house in one morning before the fire re-ignited.
We only lost what linens and toiletries were in that bathroom, our living room stuff due to smoke and water damage mostly, and a few minor things. The bedrooms were mostly just a little wet and most everything was saved from them. The other end of the house where my office and the utility room was was undamaged.
Until I started getting all the texts from friends and even some from strangers this morning (Thanks a lot Big Mouth), my train of thought was really about how lucky we have been this week. Then I began to wonder when that luck will run out. The way I see it, we have cashed in two favors from God in one week. First; our home and family get spared from an F5 tornado by less than 1/2 mile. Second; God gave me the wisdom to move my family to stay with friends in Indiana, where I knew they would be safe. You see, if we had been home, based on the time of the night and the location in which the fire started in the house, there is a good chance this would have been a TRAGIC event.
As for the cause...We got power back on last night and my guess is a power surge of some sort. The fire was reported less than two hours after the power came back on. The fire started in a built in, wall mounted space heater in the bathroom. That space heater has never been turned on the entire time we have lived at the house. The reason we got power on so quickly(most everyone else in the area is still in the dark) is because they ran some sort of emergency line up to the power block that we are on. It is the same power block as City Hall, Police Station, and the firehouse.
Since you guys already got the ball rolling I guess, like Brian said, I don't have much choice. I will assure you though that anything we receive above what little we actually need, will be donated to other families that are much worse off than us in our area due to the tornadoes.
