Members of the church have been incredibly generous with offers of clothes, furniture, etc. We are grateful for them, and for all the blessings in our lives.
The Red Cross initially gave the boys hygene kits and a prepaid credit card to use for clothes. This allowed them to go get socks, underwear, and so on so they could take showers and put on clean clothes. You would be amazed at how important something as small as the ability to take a shower and put on clean socks can be.
A couple of the furniture stores here in town will donate furniture (a houseful, apparently) once they see the official fire report. It just happens that the incident commander at the fire lives right down the road from the trailer, and he has the report waiting for Beaux to pick up.
It is highly possible that it will be worth it to someone Beaux knows to clean up the site for the price of the metal. Apparently, the twelve inch, seventy foot long I-beams under the trailer are worth several thousand dollars, and the metal from the roof is worth a couple thousand more.
Beaux used to work for a guy who runs a construction company, and had once told Beaux he would build him a house at "cost". He has just reiterated that offer to Beaux. The loan officer at the credit union is very interested in the prospect, and may be willing to finance the deal, rolling the original loan on the land in, and so on.
Patrick, for some unexplained reason, was overpaid several hundred dollars after his last trip. When he went to his boss about it, he was told not to worry about it. He was also told he was going to get at least one more check that would be too much. This happened before the fire. The extra money will certainly come in handy.
We were able to get a replacement key (and a spare) for Beaux' truck, and he is in the process of rebuilding his wallet.
Patrick was very lucky to have grabbed his wallet and keys on his way out of the house. We also found Patrick's brand new glasses, in their case, undamaged! The case was singed, but it had been inside his trip bag, and being metal, had protected the glasses. Patrick was also able to find some pictures that weren't destroyed.
The one group I'm not impressed with is Direct TV. When Patrick contacted them about the fire, they told him he would have to pay them for the DVR that got burned up, and he is going to have to pay them to turn off the contract. Maybe if he gave them the DVR back....
I was able to get some pictures off Patrick's cell phone from just about the time they got the fire put out. They are below...
This was taken from behind the fire trucks. Patrick's truck is on the right, and Beaux' is just visible in the glare from the lights. Patrick had to tow Beaux' truck (it's an automatic) backwards across the road. The transmission and gear box weren't damaged!
Firemen digging through the rubble
Firemen looking at the debris. There were firemen and engines from three different volunteer fire departments!
Firemen and neighbors looking at bits of stuff. In the foreground is a large piece of the metal roof. The firemen used hooks and just pulled it off at some point.
