JMT Wildfire Relief

[JMT]

Thank all of you for your sound advice, and many of you for giving
to help us get on our feet again. We are amazed by the outpouring of response. We are so blessed. There is no end to the limits of God’s kindness through you.

We are looking at homes as we can. Our realtor is doing a great job. Super helpful and a friend.

We went yo the home today. It’s as bad or worse than the previous pictures. Hard to look at the path of destruction. It is unreal. Traveled low through the evergreens rather than up top, and like a freight train. The heat had to be extreme. Alloy wheels melted into puddles. No houses around our survived. What’s left.

 

[rasband]

This is the wrong side of incredible, I'm glad that your family is safe.

 

[JMT]

I’m awake so why not write something. About 11:30am my wife and I were watching the Indian Trails Fire and discussing packing some stuff. We kept thinking they would stop it up on the bluff.

The LJ rear diff was under surgery. I decided to remove the ARB Compressor entirely and button up the diff. I already had some RTV. Said 24 hours before filling with gear oil. I put it all together. And filled. Had I not done this it would have been gone. My 15 yr old daughter who just got her drivers permit drove for hours as we tried to get to a friends home. So proud of her. My son in law drove the red Jeep. Said at one point he was going almost 100mph. I wonder where that was. Still don’t know.

Forgot till now. An entire Savvy Midarm kit burned.

 

[speeding_infraction]

I’m awake so why not write something. About 11:30am my wife and I were watching the Indian Trails Fire and discussing packing some stuff. We kept thinking they would stop it up on the bluff.

The LJ rear diff was under surgery. I decided to remove the ARB Compressor entirely and button up the diff. I already had some RTV. Said 24 hours before filling with gear oil. I put it all together. And filled. Had I not done this it would have been gone. My 15 yr old daughter who just got her drivers permit drove for hours as we tried to get to a friends home. So proud of her. My son in law drove the red Jeep. Said at one point he was going almost 100mph. I wonder where that was. Still don’t know.

Forgot till now. An entire Savvy Midarm kit burned.

You, Sir, have some badass kids. That's a huge amount of stress for anyone to be under driving that long, for that reason, let alone a 15 year old kid that's just starting driving.

 

[sab]

The LJ rear diff was under surgery. I decided to remove the ARB Compressor entirely and button up the diff. I already had some RTV. Said 24 hours before filling with gear oil. I put it all together. And filled. Had I not done this it would have been gone.

Wow, what a story of good planning, Jeremy! Unbelievable. It puts into perspective that fact that my LJ has been on my lift with nothing from the frame down for over a year...

My 15 yr old daughter who just got her drivers permit drove for hours as we tried to get to a friends home. So proud of her. My son in law drove the red Jeep. Said at one point he was going almost 100mph. I wonder where that was. Still don’t know.

Great effort by all to save what you could!

Forgot till now. An entire Savvy Midarm kit burned.

 

[JMT]

You, Sir, have some badass kids.

This^^^

And I still have them. The married ones are having us over for lunches or dinners. Just seeing them lifts us up. I’ll never see them the same.

My oldest daughter started a StopFund for us. So many people have given.

Tried my first itemizing this morning. Got 20 items and froze. It is so daunting. I gotta work soon. My core research physical library is gone. No idea how to do this.

 

[JMT]

It puts into perspective that fact that my LJ has been on my lift with nothing from the frame down for over a year...

If you can, get it on wheel dolly’s and roll into the middle of the road. No guarantees, but best case scenario.

Get rid of wood fences. The fire travels along the top of them to the house.

 

[sab]

Tried my first itemizing this morning. Got 20 items and froze. It is so daunting. I gotta work soon. My core research physical library is gone. No idea how to do this.

You might consider hiring a Public Insurance Adjuster. They'll help with the itemization process, as well as fight with your insurance company to get you full compensation.

 

[sab]

If you can, get it on wheel dolly’s and roll into the middle of the road. No guarantees, but best case scenario.

Get rid of wood fences. The fire travels along the top of them to the house.

About 15 years ago, I had the fire department out to do a wildfire assessment, and I've accomplished most of the big items on the list since then. All of our buildings are 100% Class A non-combustible on the outside. It's all the little things (screens over all vents, for instance), and constant mowing, that are left. That, and convincing Mrs. sab (and myself, too, honestly) that some of the beautiful oak trees near the house need to come down...

 

[macleanflood]

Yeah when I built my shop I did all the siding in Hardie lap siding to match the house.

I should have done the trim in Hardie. And I should have done tempered glass windows instead of the regular soda glass.

We've got a pretty decent clear space around the house but none of it would be enough.

Just bought a 3000 gallon tank...need to get that plumbed in at the top of the hill. I figured it's about 40' higher than the house so gravity should give us 30 psi. Good if the power drops and the generator isn't running or out of diesel.

-Mac

 

[sab]

Tried my first itemizing this morning. Got 20 items and froze. It is so daunting. I gotta work soon. My core research physical library is gone. No idea how to do this.

I don't know if this helps, but I pulled the category list from the home inventory software I use to keep track of our stuff (most of these were in the software, but some are custom categories I created):

CategoryName
Appliances
Automotive Accessories
Bath
Clothing
Decorations & Art
Electronics
Emergency Supplies
Firearms
Furnishings
Garage & Yard
Gunsmithing Tools
Hobbies & Crafts
Home & Garden
Hunting
Jewelry & Valuables
Kitchen & Cleaning
Linens
Literature
Medical
Office Equipment
Reloading
Shooting
Sports & Recreation
Tools
Vehicles

Also, I'd suggest going room by room in your head and picturing what was in each room. Also, if you have digital photos, somewhere, dig through those, too, for ideas.

Like any big task, Jeremy, you're eating an elephant. As the old saying goes - you eat it one bite at a time!

 

[sab]

I figured it's about 40' higher than the house so gravity should give us 30 psi.

Not quite that much pressure. 1 ft of water column = .43 psi (it's ingrained in my head from practicing civil engineering the last 20 years), so it's about 17 psi, but if the tank is full, you're probably at about 20 psi, which, in Texas, is the legal requirement for minimum pressure during fire flows (truck connected to a fire hydrant and drawing). Good enough!

More importantly, make sure you put a Fire Department Connection on that tank so that the fire department can connect to it (ask your fire department what type of connection they prefer - there are more than one type). It probably won't help in a true wildfire situation, but it would if just your place was burning.

Edited because, once again, I can't proofread sufficiently...

 

[John Cooper]

@JMT dang it man, just saw this. Words cannot express how i feel for you and yours.

Went through a house loss back in 1986, lord the itemizing took for ever it seemed like.

If the insurance company pesters you about turning it in quickly, make them give you in writing a clause that you can add on to it for a couple of months.

Y'all are in our prayers my friend!!!!

 

[JMT]

This is somewhere in our neighborhood. Gives a good idea. Honestly, it’s so bad I got turned around in my own neighborhood and had to ask what street we were on.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1MCz2kZfsK/?mibextid=wwXIfr

 

[bbaldwin237]

This is somewhere in our neighborhood. Gives a good idea. Honestly, it’s so bad I got turned around in my own neighborhood and had to ask what street we were on.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1MCz2kZfsK/?mibextid=wwXIfr

My brain struggles to comprehend the magnitude of this. Our hearts are broken for your family, and the dozens or hundreds of others going through the same trauma.

 

[JMT]

The list does help Scott @sab. My head has to go through rooms, cabinets, shelves, and drawers.

Brandon @bbaldwin237 I think it’s around 700 homes.

 

[JMT]

One of our neighbors retired as a fireman 2 months ago. His house is totally gone. To fight fires your whole life only to have your life destroyed by one. This is so hard.

 

[tworley]

Sorry to see this, Jeremy. It all can be replaced. What cant be, you still have. Hang in there.

We moved into our current house December 25th, 2021. 3 days later, the Marshall Fire happened. We were a 1/2 mile from the evacuation zone. It was a feeling of helplessness - all our possessions still in boxes. We packed a couple bags for ourselves, found some keepsakes amongst all the boxes and got the pets ready to leave. I dont think I slept at all that night.

 

[Mike_H]

My heart breaks for you Jeremy. I cannot imagine going through anything like this. Just like anything else, you don't know what you don't know and I feel for you and your family now knowing. It's just devastating. I keep coming back to this thread any wish I could do more to help. If you need anything, just shoot a PM or text. I don't have any direct experience with Fire recovery, but I can listen to you vent, talk jeeps, offer a non-emotional, hopefully rational counterpoint if something like that is necessary, whatever helps.

 

[Chris]

You and your family are in our prayers. l can't even imagine...

We have it so good in this country that we forget that stuff like this is the norm for so many people around the world. This is a reminder of how quickly it can all disappear. At least you have your family and the Lord, that is a true blessing.