"We Didn't Start the Fire" or "Great Balls of Fire" or "C'mon Baby Light My Fire"

Big changes on the horizon. Namely, new furniture, new clothes, new toys, new apartment.

Friday, June 19th, my apartment was engulfed in flames. Thankfully, I wasn't home, but was out fishing. Not so thankfully, just about everything inside was toast/bbq/burnt hot dogs. What wasn't burned to a crisp had pretty severe smoke/water damage.

The fire department got the 911 call from a neighbor at 7:35 pm, I had left at 6:30 pm, but since I was out fishing I didn't get the message on my cell phone until 9:05 pm or so, and at that point sped home. By the time I arrived at 9:30 pm, all the action was done (I know, I didn't even get to see the show) and it was a matter of giving an official report to the fire department and going into shock at the circumstances.

The thought is that somehow the fire started in the motor of the refrigerator; it's pretty rare for this to be a cause, but it's not unheard of. It was an older house with two apartments in it so there was sufficient old dry wood, ceiling tiles, carpet, etc. for the whole thing to go up like a tinder box. Once the FD had things under control it was determined that anything in the kitchen was a 100% loss, including hunting gear, boots, GPS, ammunition etc. that was stored in a closet. The bedroom which was off the kitchen was a total loss as well, so all of the clothing and some other furniture was gone too. In the other rooms, living room & office, anything electronic or near the walls was a loss, as well as most pieces of furniture. All in all, probably a 90% loss on my personal property.

Insurance has paid for me to be holed up in a Best Western for the last ten days as I've been apartment hunting/trying to get back on my feet/etc.

Luckily, I did have renter's insurance, so there will be a check coming from the insurance company shortly which will help me begin to replace some of the things I lost. I've made some progress with apartment hunting and will move into a new place later this week (hopefully).
All the "stuff" that you accumulate over the years can be replaced, and it will be nice to upgrade the electronics and wardrobe. The insurance process has been tedious but I'm glad it's there and the adjustor seems to be decent enough to work with.

Long story short: this would be a hell of a lot worse to try to deal with without insurance. Granted it could have not happened (the preferable option), but it did, and the only option now is to move on, replacing the items I had that I need to replace, and living without the other ones. One thought is that this will make things alot easier the next time I move.

And it may not be the worst thing to re-gear for the second decade of the 2000's with a simpler, more efficient, utilitarian set of possessions.