Rodent are being blamed for a fire that ripped through a family's home on Christmas Day leaving them with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Ian Merson said he felt numb after the fire tore through the semi-rural home at Puketapu, north of Hastings, as the family sat down to Christmas dinner at a relative's house.

He and his wife built the large family home 23 years ago where they raised their two children, who were home to celebrate a yuletide season now coloured by calamity.

"There's absolutely nothing - we've got no clothes on our back and nowhere to live," Merson said.

Nothing was salvageable as smoke damage ruined everything from the Christmas tree to Lego destined for future grandchildren.

Merson said the fire was thought to have started in a bathroom fan after rodents gnawed through wiring. "The bathroom's just melted. Everything's just smoke-damaged or unsalvageable, there's nothing left.

"My kids' family home is gone and they knew every square inch of this place."

He said the catastrophe was so painful he would not let his wife inside the house because "she wouldn't be able to handle it" and said he had struggled to drive through the farm gate.

Merson, who is insured, is a roofing contractor and also runs an apple orchard from the farm.

He had to dump stock yesterday at reduced prices because he was unable to water it.

Read the original:
Family loses all in Christmas fire

JACKSON COUNTY, Wis. (WKBT) -

One firefighter was injured while putting out a Christmas day fire in Jackson County.

The firefighter suffered a finger laceration, but no one else was injured.

The Black River Falls Fire Department responded to mobile home fire on Spring Creek Road in the Township of Albion around 6:02 p.m. on Thursday.

When firefighters arrived, smoke was showing from the mobile homes window but there was no open flame. The firefighters attacked the fire from within the home and found the fire mostly running through the walls and under the floor of the structure.

Authorities say the structure and contents appear to be a total loss. The owners Benjamin and Deni Martin and their two young kids were not home when the fire started.

A cause for the fire is unknown at this time but authorities said an electric hot water heater and wiring are being looked at. The owners told the fire department they had trouble with the hot water heater earlier in the day.

The Black River Fire Department used 4,700 gallons of water to fight the fire, which took more than three hours.

The family is being assisted by the Red Cross.

The rest is here:
Mobile home a complete loss after Christmas Day fire

Fire destroyed an unoccupied Jackson County mobile home Thursday, according to the Black River Falls Fire Department.

A report of smoke coming from the home at W11404 Spring Creek Road in the town of Albion was relayed to the Jackson County dispatch center at 6:02 p.m. Firefighters found the fire running in the walls and beneath the floor of the structure, which was described as a total loss.

Owners Benjamin and Deni Martin and their two young children were not at home.

Investigators said wiring of faulty electric water heater may be the cause, as the owners said they working on it earlier in the day, according to a news release from Chief Steve Schreiber.

The family had no insurance and the Red Cross was providing assistance.

Read more from the original source:
Fire destroys Jackson County mobile home

Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WRDW) -- Mark Rogers and his family watched his home burn down Monday morning. Fire investigators say it was due to old wiring and now a neighbor who watched it all happen is concerned for her and her family's safety as well.

Stay-at-home-Mom Victoria Braddock watched as the Rogers' family watched their home and new car they bought the day before, deteriorate. Braddock says she's concerned now because her family had trouble in the past with electricity.

"We've also had some light switches that were not working because of the wiring, once again it wasn't a big deal to us because we had multiple switches so we could just use another one," said Braddock.

Now, everything to do with electricity has become a big deal to the Braddock's. Electrician Ray Johnson says a flame can spark with the misuse of any circuits, but especially in homes built in the 1950s all the way up to the 1970s.

"If you overload a circuit it's a fire hazard if you have drop cords don't use multiple drop cords just one drop cord," said Johnson

Johnson adds overloading a circuit is easier to do in an older home because it likely doesn't have regulators. In newer homes regulators help maintain the circuit breaker so they don't overheat.

"Yea that doesn't seem like a major problem but as a result it could be," said Braddock.

Braddock adds they plan to contact their landlord about an inspection to make sure everything is up to date. It's a lesson she wants her family to learn so that what happens across the street doesn't happen to them.

Have information or an opinion about this story? Click here to contact the newsroom.

Read the original post:
Neighbor's of Rogers' family are concerned about their home too

By Noel Lyn Smith

nsmith@daily-times.com @nsmithdt on Twitter

Lottie and Robert Augustine pose for a portrait on Dec. 17 at their new home in Aztec. (Jon Austria The Daily Times)

Editor's note: The Daily Times' "Rewind" series revisits stories we have reported on over the past year. To read more "Rewind" stories, go to daily-times.com.

AZTEC Members of a local family who lost their home in March are celebrating Christmas in a new home, thanks to people who donated more than $7,000 to help them in their time of need.

on March 30, winds blew the roof off Lottie Augustine's three-bedroom, single-wide trailer near County Road 6893 in Waterflow.

The trailer was damaged beyond repair, with electrical wiring and insulation exposed, and the San Juan County Fire Department deemed it unhabitable. It was demolished in April.

The family was left homeless but after receiving help from the community, its members are now living a two-bedroom, single-wide trailer in Aztec.

"It's a beautiful trailer, it's a beautiful home," Augustine said while glancing at her living room.

After seeing the damage, Augustine said she wondered where her husband, Robert, and their son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren would live.

Read more:
Local family members are back on their feet, thanks to donations from the community

Frank Azack doesnt bother to lock his door anymore.

Theres nothing to take, he chuckled. The house is totally empty!

Standing in the echoey, gutted remains of the tiny structure in Toms River that he and his wife used to call home, its easy to see what he means. The walls are gone, leaving exposed pipes and wiring; the floor is warped, and theres still evidence of mold in some places. For Azack, its a depressing sight.

The insurance company told me that I should have the floors ripped out, put new beams in, replace the plywood, clean out the crawlspace, and repair any cracks with epoxy adhesive, he said. Like putting a Band-Aid on it, you know? Its not going to work.

Not going to work because theres a crack in the foundation, and the house is slowly sinking into the ground. Essentially, its a total loss. Azacks insurance company finally acknowledged as much, cutting him a check in mid-2013 for $74,000 dollars, 82 percent of the structures value. But town officials initially said his losses were much less. It took Azack another year to get a letter from Toms River, declaring his home substantially damaged.

Every time I called downtown, Id get put to a different department, I got hung up on. Call Engineering. Call Planning. Call Zoning. I kept getting put all over the place, Azack recalled. Nobody would give me a solid answer. And I just needed a letter stating how much damage I have. We dont have those letters. Thats what I was told.

The reason this matters is because after Sandy, the state of New Jersey gave priority to grant applicants who submitted substantial-damage letters from their towns, showing their homes had lost more than 50 percent of their value. While Azack was calling around, trying to get that document, the grant deadline passed, so he lost out on up to $150,000 he desperately needed to rebuild his home.

For all the homeowners whove successfully navigated the complicated recovery process, sorting through mountains of paperwork, making countless trips backs and forth to meet with their housing advisors, and spending hours on the phone with government bureaucrats, all to earn a spot in line for aid, its hard to know just how many people are in situations like Azack.

Of the nearly 9,000 New Jersey residents whove received preliminary approval so far through the states largest grant program, fewer than 300 have gotten funding and completed construction on their homes. Among themultitude of reasonswhy Sandy aid has taken so long, for some storm victims, obtaining this elusive document from their towns was part of the problem. Looking back, critics say theres plenty of blame to spread around, from municipal officials uncertain of their duties to the state for not clarifying grant requirements from the outset to the feds for failing to mandate training for the local floodplain managers responsible for issuing these letters. In some cases, it appears that attempts by bureaucrats to control the process and manage the flow of applications actually made things more confusing and left homeowners twisting in the wind.

The Department of Community Affairs has resolved to eventually provide funding for all grant applicants, including those who were unable to obtain substantial-damage letters, but the added delays have been difficult and stressful, and many residents will likely still fall through the cracks. Whatever lessons can be drawn from this experience, for some unfortunate homeowners, those lessons come too late to help.

See the original post here:
The Piece of Paper Standing in the Way of This Man and His Home

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, MO (KCTV) -

Building materials and labor are all one family is asking for this Christmas after a fire burned down their Excelsior Springs home.

The fire destroyed the family's home in the 300 block of Haynes on Dec. 2.

A 5-year-old boy named Lucky noticed the smoke and alerted his dad who was sleeping at the time.

"Sure enough there was a lot of smoke in the kitchen, and I noticed the attic door was cracked and smoke was just rolling down the staircase," Lucky's dad, Joe Clark, said.

Clark and Lucky got out OK, but the fire didn't leave much behind.

"We're trying to salvage anything we can ... don't know what works and what don't. But we're pulling out anything that looks salvageable," Clark said.

Clark says the 104-year-old home's outdated wiring caused the fire. With no insurance, the family of four is depending on donations that are coming in all forms of generosity.

"We have a secret Santa who has already said when the time comes, he's putting a roof on it," said Lura Pate, Clark's fianc.

"The boys have all the clothes they're going to need for the next year from all the donations," Clark added.

Link:
Excelsior Springs family seeks materials to rebuild home after fire

Friends and co-workers say goodbye to 59-year-old Craig Goldsworthy, who they say died in his home when it went up in flames Friday night. /Courtesy of Snowbird Lanes

CLARE CO. -- The man that was killed in a Clare County home fire Friday night is being remembered by friends and co-workers.

Friends and co-workers spent today sayinggoodbye to 59-year-old Craig Goldsworthy, who they say died in his home when it went up in flames Friday night.

"Real good friend," Paul Bailey, Goldsworthys friend, said, "I am going to miss the guy."

"I'm sure it was an accidental fire," Clare County Sheriff John Wilson, said. "The guy was using a generator to power his house. So, was it something in the wiring? We dont know. Were not sure at this time."

Goldsworthy was heavily involved in the community, doing handy work for the local American Legion in Harrison, including fixing up floors and building them a sign.

Bailey said Goldsworthy went there often. Bailey said he left there around 9 p.m. the night of the fire, taking a bus back home.

"Hed come up after work," Bailey said. "The transit dropped him off and hed come in here, have a few drinks, and associate with everybody. Just like part of the family."

Being part of the family was a theme for Goldsworthy, as he was also well-known at Snowbird Lanes, where he bowled a perfect score of 300. His picture is currently hanging on their wall.

"A good family member," Rosanna Marie Bailey, Snowbird Lanes general manager and Goldsworthys friend, said. "He was a great bowler. His name was in the newspaper almost every week because he would bowl a 200 game or 200 plus. He always had a good series that he bowled. (He) will be sadly missed."

Here is the original post:
Man who died in house fire remembered by community

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, known for her love of fixing up and selling houses, has listed her adjacent units in a Westwood condo building for close to $16 million.

Get out the road map and the moving truck. She bought the two Wilshire Corridor condos for that amount in July after selling her primary residence on the Westside to Napster co-founder Sean Parker for $55 million.

The smaller of the two condos, which are for sale separately or together, has been redone and features an elevator opening directly to the unit, stone and wide-plank oak flooring, two bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a half-bath. Priced at $7.495 million, it has 3,813 square feet of living space.

The larger condo contains 4,158 square feet and is listed for $8.495 million. There are two bedrooms and three full bathrooms.

Together the units take up an entire floor with golf course and downtown views.

The digs appear to have been only temporary as DeGeneres and her spouse, Portia de Rossi, prepared to move back into a property she previously owned. That two-part deal involved buying back the Hollywood Hills West home of Jodie Fosters spouse, Alexandra Hedison, this summer and an adjoining property for a combined $10 million the same amount she sold both properties for in 2007.

Hedison, who married Foster in April, rebuilt and updated the 1950s four-bedroom home with a swimming pool, installing new wiring, plumbing, roofing, windows, a security system and other improvements.

The re-formed DeGeneres compound has more than 1.6 acres of grounds.

Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency is the listing agent for the condominiums. Barry Gray of Deasy Penner & Partners was Hedisons listing agent.

Twitter: @LATHotProperty

Link:
Ellen DeGeneres lists condos, moving back to previous home

Dec. 17, 2014 @ 12:01 AM

HUNTINGTON The following information was provided by reports filed by the Huntington Police Department:

BURGLARY: A Huntington resident reported someone broke into a home in the 300 block of 6th Avenue between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Monday and stole a hot water tank, metal sink, oven, refrigerator, copper pipes and electrical wiring. The estimated loss is

$4,925.

A Huntington resident reported someone broke into an outbuilding in the 3100 block of 5th Avenue between last Wednesday night and last Thursday evening and stole a grass trimmer and tool set. The estimated loss is $1,050.

GRAND LARCENY: A Huntington woman reported on Dec. 15 that someone stole 42 pieces of jewelry from her home in the 600 block of 10th Street on Nov. 18. The estimated loss is $9,850.

A Huntington man reported someone stole nine guns and a credit card from his home in the 300 block of 2nd Street in Altizer between Sept. 14 and Nov. 30. The suspect used the card at least once at a gas station on Sept. 18 and charged $51.84. It was also discovered that some of the guns had been pawned at two businesses in Huntington. The estimated loss is $4,532. The victim was still gathering evidence at the time of the report.

A Huntington resident reported someone got into a garage in the 600 block of 17th Street between Dec. 5 and Dec. 12 and stole a cabinet, ladder, gas grill, dining room tables, and dining room table chairs. The estimated loss is $1,020.

BREAKING AND ENTERING AUTO: Property Connection reported someone smashed out a window to a van Friday night and stole $1,970 worth of tools.

ARSON: Firefighters responded to the 400 block of 14th Street early Friday morning to extinguish a fire that had engulfed a trailer filled with wooden pallets and other debris. The estimated loss is $1,500.

Read the original post:
$4,925 in appliances and more taken from home