Here’s a shot of the aftermath of that fire I posted about yesterday. Here’s a news article about it, along with another photo.

Apparently, a faulty furnace may have been the cause of the blaze. Which is kind of scary–I just had a similar incident with the furnace for the upstairs apartment of my house (it’s a two family house, divided into upstairs and downstairs apartments). The other day, something in the furnace blew, and it was overheating, and smoke was billowing out of the attic. I’m not sure what the actual cause of the smoke was, but it went up through the walls until it reached the attic, then came down into the house from there. The fire department came to inspect the problem; at the time when the smoke was first detected, I didn’t know what the cause of it was, so it could have been an actual fire for all I knew.

Luckily for me, it turned out to be not that big a deal (though it’ll be pricey to replace the furnace). Actually, it’s damn lucky. Obviously, losing your home to a fire is a big deal no matte what, but this happened a few days before my grandfather passed away. Well, if the house had burned down while he was still living, I might have lost everything. Why? The veteran’s home where he was staying had some claim on the house, but if I lived here and didn’t sell the house, it would remain in my possession–it’s some kind of caregiver provision (because I’d taken care of him for several years before he had to go to the home). So I’m not sure if I would have been screwed out of everything had the house burned down. There would be insurance money, but the vet’s home might have claimed it. I’m glad I don’t have to find out.

What you can’t tell from the photo below is that there were three whole businesses there. There was the pizza place, a Chinese restaurant, and a bodega (with an apartment upstairs). Truth be told, I don’t think the pizza place is any great loss (though I feel for the owners and employees), but I was rather fond of the Chinese place, even if they did frequently get my order wrong. (Schezuan Chicken not sweet & sour chicken!) I have no real opinion about the bodega, though the place seemed to be cursed even before this–it’s been a revolving door of owners for the past couple years, and I’d never even made it into this latest incarnation. (Last time I went in there, no one working there spoke English.)

You know what I find amazing, though? Look at that building on the left side of the photo. That house appears to be completely unscathed! Nice work, PAFD! The gas station, which I mentioned the other day, is further to the left of the house, so it looks like it was never in any real danger.