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OK, here's the BRIEF rundown on what happened guys....
Wednesday night: I'm working with Kafn8d to strip paint off some 4.6L DOHC valve covers. Was going to get them polished and possibly chromed and put them on the Mysty. We use Aircraft paint remover and are VERY careful, EVEN at the car wash down the street.
Thursday night (Midnight) I throw away the plastic bag we used to hold the valve
covers while we worked on them. I crumpled up the DRY bag and threw in my plastic trash can. I went to bed thinking I had waited long enough and there was no danger for anything to happen.
Friday morning 5:45AM - My alarm goes off as usual. I figure - it's Friday, I can be a little late to work, hit the snooze button.
5:48AM. I hear a BANG and I sit straight up in bed. I looked out my bedroom window to the living room window and see smoke coming from rear of my house. For some reason, I think it's a kid with fireworks (Not sure why, but that's what I thought). Jumped out of bed, nothing on but a pair of shorts. I ran downstairs to the garage (it has a rear facing window). Opened the fire door to the house and see the corner of the garage is on fire. I immediately yell for Michelle to call 911, the garage is on fire. I grab a fire extinguisher (I keep them all over the garage, DO THIS YOU GUYS, they are CHEAP). Go to fight the fire and the garage is already up in flames pretty bad, I pull the pin and start spraying. Not doing much to put it out and I already can't breathe, as smoke is EVERYWHERE. I'm talking you can't even SEE the flames on the wall at this point. Then I did a really dumb thing (amazing how you can't think in a situation like this) and hit the electric garage door opener..
GAME OVER.
The garage damn near EXPLODES in flames due to the added air. The ceiling is dripping insulation
on me and I get burned pretty badly from the crap. I run out of the garage through the large electric door and start banging on the house's front door for Michelle to get out, I've given up on all the cars and garage at this point. I'm banging as if it's the last door on earth, wondering why the hell she isn't getting out?! Just about ready to kick the door in with my damn bare feet (seriously) and I hear screaming from the front of the house. I run around and see Michelle at the 2nd floor computer room window, ready to jump. I yell for her to jump and she does, I catch her and we run into the middle of the cul de sac. As we're running the garage is popping and banging as various things explode. Not even joking.
The only thing I (and the fire chief) can think of is that the bag that the strippings were in
somehow ignited. Anyhow, as you can tell by the pictures, my '64 Impala SS and my soon to be 500rwhp '04 Mystichrome were in the garage, along with all my tools, etc. The '04 F-150 Lariat 4x4 and the '92 'vert (351w-stroker Messtichrome) were in the driveway, along with Michelle's '04 Ranger FX4 4x4 and our 2 snowmobiles and trailer.
Just about everything is gone. We were able to salvage two Rangers full of things out of the
basement (stuff I really didn't care much about) and my weights from the weight room. Nothing
else survived.
So that's the basic rundown, we're working on a place to live while we rebuild the house. Of course everything is insured but you can't put a value on the work I (and MANY MANY MANY others) put into those cars, and those of you that knew me, know that every one of those vehicles were my life. It hurts guys, honestly though, I'm just glad Michelle and I made it out, me with relatively minor injuries. 10 minutes earlier and we might not have made out so well. I still had to spend about 5 hours at the hospital and they did all kinds of blood tests and lung tests. (I even had an EKG). They treated my burns and sent me home finally.
Anyway, I lost my cell phone, wallet, etc. Anything that had phone #'s on it, so please, if I had your # before or you want to share it now, please feel free to send it to me via a PM or an E-mail.
Thanks to all that had kind words to say for us, we do appreciate all of responses. It really does mean a lot to us to have friends like you guys.
Dan
Wednesday night: I'm working with Kafn8d to strip paint off some 4.6L DOHC valve covers. Was going to get them polished and possibly chromed and put them on the Mysty. We use Aircraft paint remover and are VERY careful, EVEN at the car wash down the street.
Thursday night (Midnight) I throw away the plastic bag we used to hold the valve
covers while we worked on them. I crumpled up the DRY bag and threw in my plastic trash can. I went to bed thinking I had waited long enough and there was no danger for anything to happen.
Friday morning 5:45AM - My alarm goes off as usual. I figure - it's Friday, I can be a little late to work, hit the snooze button.
5:48AM. I hear a BANG and I sit straight up in bed. I looked out my bedroom window to the living room window and see smoke coming from rear of my house. For some reason, I think it's a kid with fireworks (Not sure why, but that's what I thought). Jumped out of bed, nothing on but a pair of shorts. I ran downstairs to the garage (it has a rear facing window). Opened the fire door to the house and see the corner of the garage is on fire. I immediately yell for Michelle to call 911, the garage is on fire. I grab a fire extinguisher (I keep them all over the garage, DO THIS YOU GUYS, they are CHEAP). Go to fight the fire and the garage is already up in flames pretty bad, I pull the pin and start spraying. Not doing much to put it out and I already can't breathe, as smoke is EVERYWHERE. I'm talking you can't even SEE the flames on the wall at this point. Then I did a really dumb thing (amazing how you can't think in a situation like this) and hit the electric garage door opener..
GAME OVER.
The garage damn near EXPLODES in flames due to the added air. The ceiling is dripping insulation
on me and I get burned pretty badly from the crap. I run out of the garage through the large electric door and start banging on the house's front door for Michelle to get out, I've given up on all the cars and garage at this point. I'm banging as if it's the last door on earth, wondering why the hell she isn't getting out?! Just about ready to kick the door in with my damn bare feet (seriously) and I hear screaming from the front of the house. I run around and see Michelle at the 2nd floor computer room window, ready to jump. I yell for her to jump and she does, I catch her and we run into the middle of the cul de sac. As we're running the garage is popping and banging as various things explode. Not even joking.
The only thing I (and the fire chief) can think of is that the bag that the strippings were in
somehow ignited. Anyhow, as you can tell by the pictures, my '64 Impala SS and my soon to be 500rwhp '04 Mystichrome were in the garage, along with all my tools, etc. The '04 F-150 Lariat 4x4 and the '92 'vert (351w-stroker Messtichrome) were in the driveway, along with Michelle's '04 Ranger FX4 4x4 and our 2 snowmobiles and trailer.
Just about everything is gone. We were able to salvage two Rangers full of things out of the
basement (stuff I really didn't care much about) and my weights from the weight room. Nothing
else survived.
So that's the basic rundown, we're working on a place to live while we rebuild the house. Of course everything is insured but you can't put a value on the work I (and MANY MANY MANY others) put into those cars, and those of you that knew me, know that every one of those vehicles were my life. It hurts guys, honestly though, I'm just glad Michelle and I made it out, me with relatively minor injuries. 10 minutes earlier and we might not have made out so well. I still had to spend about 5 hours at the hospital and they did all kinds of blood tests and lung tests. (I even had an EKG). They treated my burns and sent me home finally.
Anyway, I lost my cell phone, wallet, etc. Anything that had phone #'s on it, so please, if I had your # before or you want to share it now, please feel free to send it to me via a PM or an E-mail.
Thanks to all that had kind words to say for us, we do appreciate all of responses. It really does mean a lot to us to have friends like you guys.
Dan
TCS Auto-X Driver
horrible story, but the best news is that you and michelle got out ok, material items can be replaced, you two sure can't be.
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