Shop Fire

Got a call last Friday night (05/11/12), caller ID and distinctive ringtone said it was from my son's home. His wife was on the other end of the line, "The shed's on fire!" What? Did you call 911? I'll be right over.

Three or four years ago my son had an All Size Shed built behind his house so he could work on his various projects, and to get all his tools out from under his wife's feet. Slowly he started purchasing equipment to make his work easier. Then came the CarveWright machine.

What a pretty little machine and what fascinating things it could carve out.

Last Friday he was working on his nephew, my grandson, K-Monster's last class project for the school year. It was almost done. They had left it to go in the house for a few minutes and the next thing they know the neighbor is pounding on their door yelling, "the shed is on fire!" My son had left the shed door open, as he always does, so when he ran out and saw it was out of his control he shut the door and cut the power to the shop. Then he yelled at his wife to call 911 and stuck the garden hose in the broken window to try to knock some of the fire down.

After calling 911 she called me and I jumped in my car and drove right over. I passed downtown and saw the volunteer fire department getting ready to go. It was only seconds after I arrived that the fire department started pulling up and got right to work putting out the fire.

We have a wonderful, well trained, volunteer fire department. I've seen them at work at other much larger and more devastating fires. Our community is blessed to have them serve us.

The aftermath of the fire...

This was the following day. I would like to point out the distance between the house and the shop. The house has NO damage, not even heat damage. The fire was contained completely inside the shed. We, my son and I, are of the belief that the cement siding that is used on All Side Sheds is the main reason the fire was contained. I believe the roof might have been saved due to the loft.

This is looking from the doors straight to the back. The worst of the fire was the right back corner. The stand to the right was the dust collector that we believe to be the origin of the fire.

Dust collector to the far left with drawers visible in the first two pictures beside it.

Drill press and shelves that were in the back left corner. A.C. in wall to far left.

Dust collector to the right and I believe the CarveWright where it fell over and burned.

This is what remains of the CarveWright. Good thing to come out of this?! The project was still in the machine, finished (which is why we're sure it wasn't the CarveWright that caused the fire) and still usable. They just had to get it out of it.

A couple days later it's nearly cleaned out...

And today he said he's ready to start over...

The shop was uninsured. It is his building setting on rented property. The only thing covered by the owners insurance is the house, not even the contents. He had looked into insurance but needed to get with the agent and hadn't been able to that. I think he's taking this much better than I am. He's young. The only thing he's asked is help in hauling things away, though I think he has that covered now. What he wants is for this to be a cautionary tale to everyone with machine shops...

DO NOT LEAVE YOUR MACHINERY RUNNING UNATTENDED! 

Not without safeguards, or cameras, or some way to keep an eye/ear on what's going on with them. He thought he had taken everything into consideration and didn't think he had been gone that long.

Shad has not asked for money, but members of the CarveWright forum that he is a member of has asked for some way to donate to help him get set back up. So he has set up a donation site with PayPal. Any money that you might be able to donate will be greatly appreciated. The shop will eventually be rebuilt because he is a builder, he can't help himself, he has to build.