The Fire of 1999


On the evening of 8 November, 1999, while I was still at work, there was a fire in my house. Fortunately, I didn't go home that night, so no one was hurt. Even my two cats, Kimchee and Sashimi, survived with no more than sooty fur. But the contents of the house were pretty much a total loss. Smoke and soot filled the two main floors of the house and even got into the closed drawers of my dressers. Below are some scenes from the result.

Some words to the wise:

  1. Inventory your household goods. Keep the list up to date. Not just big-ticket items, but everything, right down to your refrigerator magnets.
  2. Save receipts.
  3. Don't leave open flame sources unattended. That includes candles.
  4. Speaking of candles, NEVER, EVER burn a candle on anything but a fireproof dish. This means metal, ceramic, or heat-resistant glass.
  5. Let your neighbors know where you can be reached at all times.

An overall view of the living room. This is what I walked into on the night of 9 November, when I first discovered the fire.
More of the living room. The blackened lump on top of the coffee table is all that remains of my 250 CD music collection. The fire investigator told me that all that plastic was the source of most of the smoke and soot that filled the house.
This is one of the wall units in the living/dining area. Notice the melted plastic hanging from the top.
Another wall unit, this one with my fine glassware and a nice wine collection underneath.
Some of my stereo components. The nice curve on top of the turntable (top of photo) was once a square cover. Fortunately, there was no CD inside the player, not that this would have made a big difference (see below).
A close-up of the turntable. The lid was down and is nicely curved over the top.
The wall across from the actual site of the fire. Note the black soot spattered by water. The white triangles across the ceiling are where the drywall was torn down by the firefighters. We don't appreciate these brave folks enough.
Miscellaneous debris from the floor of the living room.
The kitchen. It's not all black because of the plaster that fell from the ceiling. Kind of hard to cook in there these days. My homemade spice rack is under the cabinets on the right. That's a lot of lost herbs there.
More kitchen, showing the microwave and Tupperware. We never did get around to carving the pumpkin.
The dining area. This is right in front of where the site where the fire started.
This mess used to be a 55-gallon aquarium. This is the actual site of the fire.
This was my TI laptop. This and my other computers were lost in the fire. This was the reason why I was offline for a month. Amazingly enough, my old HP 41-CX was in the same room and survived the fire! What's more, it turns out the 16 year old calculator is Y2K compliant!!
This was recently discovered. The actual cause of the fire!

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