Yes, on August 8, 1956, the house my parents, my twin and I lived in burned. Mother, Neva & I were at the beach with other sisters that day, and Dad had gone home from work, eaten dinner and walked down the block to watch tv with my brother-in-law. A neighbor ran down and told him our house was on fire. It was determined that the old house had faulty wiring. My older sister had at her house Mother's sewing machine, some photo albums and a box of our old toys so those were all our possessions left. The church had a shower for us and people were so generous with money as well as clothes for all of us and everything for the house.

Afterwards when Mother heard of someone losing a home to fire, she gave everything she could spare to the family because she knew first-hand what they were going through.

My DD#2 lived in an apartment in Fargo..a couple of years ago she and her roommates were at work (she and one working the other was visiting them)they saw smoke and joked that wouldn't it be funny if it were their apartment. THe one visiting went home and ran back...it was their apartment building (not their) They lost virtually everything. Thank goodness for insurance. We learned a lot about insurance companies then, and found out we have a very good one! We also found out how level headed our daughter really is... and honest. She only claimed what she actually lost! When the insurance adjuster asked us if we wanted to approve her list I said no (she was a college student living away from home..how did I know what she owned), he said I was the only parent of the clients he had in that building that had that kind of trust in their kid...oh and the only girl. Then when the school held a meeting with the 8 students to see how they could help most were just ummm I don' tknow. When they asked her how they could help her, she said..I am takign summer classes, I lost my computer...which has been replaced, but obviously not the contents, I need replacement books, sylabus and time to catch up. She got replacement books, new sylabus' and extensions from her proffessors. She learned how to be methodical in responding. What is important and needed now (underwear!) and what can wait (Don't need to replace all 23 purses RIGHT NOW).

Vickey-MN

Yes, my house burned down in 1994. I was married at the time and my husband and I were visiting my sister on another street. We came home at 11pm to find the house full of smoke, we couldn't go inside. Called the fire department and they came but could not save the house.....fire was in the walls and attic. An inspection a couple of days later found that it was an electrical fire.

I lost everything. I wasn't wearing a coat and I didn't have my purse with me. We rummaged through the ruins and I found all of my photo albums. I took all the photos out and wiped off the soot and cut off the burned edges. I saved most this way. I found my jewelry box....the heat from the fire had meltd the finish on the wood and sealed it shut. All my jewelry (I didn't have a lot) was safe, including some pieces from my mother who had died 5 years before. Other than that we didn't salvage anything else. We rebuilt on the same lot.

It was especially hard because we had bought the house 3 years earlier from my father.....it was the house I grew up in and a lot of my parents things (that we were going to divide among my siblings but never got around to) were stored in the attic.

These are sad stories. Thank you for sharing them. Like Vicky Mn. said, thank God for insurance. Because we lost our business and apt. We were under suspicion of arson. It was assumed by the fire Marshalls we set it because we were behind on payments or going bankrupt. Because my Hubs was able to throw the business papers in his brief case, we were able to prove other-wise. We were given quilts made by church ladies, which we are still using today. A ladies club I had just joined, gave me a check for 100 dollars, saying I should use it for pesonal things I might need. That one really made me cry. i didn't have a brush, moisturizer,shampoo, or anything like that. People were wonderful to us and I'll always be thankful, and when a gal I knew lost everything in a fire, I went through my kitchen and gave her some thing to get her started, plus a gift card to help with replacing things.
Vicky Mn, you sure did something right, bringing up such an honest and level-headed Daughter.
Casey, it is doubly hard to lose a home that had been in the family for so long. You can always rebuild, but it just isn't the same.

Sorry, I had to log off from above post, a neighbor stopped by.
EvaTx, how fortunate none of you were home when the fire occurred.Pictures are one of the important things that are irreplaceable.

March of '78. We were living at my in-law's farm with FIL. He had an old huge wood burning cookstove that he liked to build fire in to warm up the kitchen. Kitchen was 120 yrs old, built by his father. There was a slight flue fire about midnight, and Hubby had woke me up to be on alert to get out if they didn't control it. I realized at some point that I was sitting on the side of the bed and didn't know why, so I laid back down...
About 10 am, I finished the dishes and went out to feed the dogs. His father had driven into town. I thought I smelled smoke and asked Hubby to check it out. He came back in all excited and grabbed the girls then 2 and 4, and put them in the pickup. I was told to call the township fire dept and get the hose! He drove down to the shop and got the chainsaw and extension ladder and climbed the ladder and cut the burning board off the side of the house! My job was to run the hose over the brick chimney and try to put out the flames. At one point I went back into the house to call fire dept. again... When they got there, the fire was out, there was a big pile of smoldering siding on the ground and 2 scared little girls!
We were so relieved to have saved the old house! His father pulled in and just looked in disbelief at what had happened in the 3 hours he had been gone....
The fire dept had to inspect anyway, and one fell through the kitchen ceiling. What a mess.
I think the insurance paid more for the damages than it cost to build that portion in the beginning...
God blesses us in many strange ways...under any other circumstances, on any given day, that could have been a disaster!
Hubby is very aware of the chimneys now. He had to go up on the roof at 11:45 on New Years Eve and check it because it wasn't drafting like it should.
30 min later, (not at midnight) we heard a couple of gunshots. Not unusual for NYE in the country at midnight, but this particular time, I was laying in bed and he was standing at foot of bed. We both heard a couple plinks hit the side of the house (behind my head) and we think it must have been buckshot. Stupid people...neighbors have cows and we have horses who are in that field each day...
Again, blessed in so many ways.....

We had a grease fire the summer before last. It happened because I hadn't cleaned the stove burners in a while. I started cooking on one of the burners. When my food was done, I turned the gas knob to "off" but the flame continued to burn. I screamed for DH, he couldnt get the fire out. I then called 911. But just as the firetruck arrived, the fire went out. After everything cooled, I gave the stove an extra good cleaning. It appears grease had dripped and collected under the grease pan, and that's what was burning. I was amazed the flames didn't shoot up. We were very lucky. We do own a home fire extinguisher but it's 31 years old, I doubt it would have worked.

We had a fire in 2001, our entire upstairs was lost due to faulty wiring. It was a surreal experience. At the time, I kept all of the family photos in a chest in the livingroom downstairs. Later that night at the hotel I thought, well at least those are safe...the next day when we went back to see the house in my daughter's bedroom on the floor were 5 photo albums! She had decided to look through them earlier the evening before..ugh!! They were not burnt, but damaged by smoke, I asked them to keep them for me and we have managed to save some of them.

We also found out that we have a great insurance company. It is something you take for granted until you need them, but they were fantastic about the repairs, finding us a new home to live in while the repairs were occurring and replacing our lost belongings.

It can be a harrowing experience, and having to not worry about the financial aspect was a huge relief.

Twice when I was little.

The first time all I remember is everyone standing in the yard at night in the snow, blankets around our shoulders, with lots of firemen around and people shouting. They put the fire out and saved the house.

The second time, one of my older sisters had hung a poodle skirt to dry over the oil furnace in the living room. I woke up to a house filled with dark smoke. My brothers and sisters were at the top of the stairs, afraid to go down because they couldn't see anything because of all the smoke. For all they knew, the stairs were burned away and they would step off into nothing.

My oldest brother got brave and felt his way down the stairs in the thick smoke, leading the rest of us to safety.

The fire burned the living room but dad and the boys managed to put it out somehow. I don't remember a fire truck that time. We lived out in a rural area.

We lucked out both times.

Caught the kitchen curtains on fire once when I ran to sink to put out bacon grease flames with water.

My sister was home from college with two roomates, and I decided to cook bacon and eggs to surprise them.

Left the skillet on high, grease caught fire.

About 6 years ago we had the roof torn off of our house by straight line winds and we lost a lot of stuff.
When my son was in junior high I went to teachers conferences and I came home and he was riding his bike down the street with 2 of his friends. I came in the house and I saw a black spot on the kitchen linoleum. I remember saying "IF THATS BURNED I'LL KILL HIM. Sure as heck it was. He came home and I asked them what happened? They told me one of them got the bright idea to go out in the shed and get the coleman kerosene can in dump it on the floot and light it with a match. The burn was probably 4 feet across. I was so thankful they didnt get hurt and that I still had a house I didnt really get mad. A few nights later I
was going to take a nap on the couch and I got a blanket to cover up. It smelled from smoke so bad I coudnt stand it. They told me thats the one they used to put the fire out.
I always work the early shift and I usually took a nap after I got off of work. One day I started pork chops on an electric grill in the kitchen and I went out and laid on the couch but I never intended to go to sleep. Well I fell asleep and I still dont know what woke me up and the house was all smokey. The grease in the bottom of the grill pan got so hot it started the chops on fire. They probably had an 8 inch flame on them. The underside of my cupboards were scorched and some of my bowls that were in the cupboard above it are still scorched.
When I was about 5 I think my mother was in the hospital having my next younger brother, My dad woke up and the old two story house was filled with smoke. He woke us all up but before he could get us out of the house, I remeber running down the hall that had a china cabinet at he end of it and I put my head through the glass door. Miraculously I never got cut. He put us 4 kids in the car and the he we nt to the cellar and found out a pin had come out on the stoker for the coal furnace. He aired the house out and we all went back in and went to bed.