God loves wood canoes

[Treewater]

About 4:40 this afternoon I had left the canoe shop for the house to get ready for a Christmas party. I had left a wood stove burning, a new one I'd just installed. As I was inside I heard a car pull in the driveway and saw a young man get out racing toward my backyard. I opened the door to challenge him and he said "there's a fire in your shop." I looked to see flames in the window reaching to the ceiling I ran to the shop and found a fire in the wood box I had set too close to the stove. As I struggled with a defective fire extinguisher the young man stretched my garden hose to the shop and turned it on. Within a minute we had the fire out. I looked at amazement as I saw the fire had scorched the wood ceiling but had not yet set it off. The ceiling was of wood paneling and would have ignited in seconds. I am still trying to comprehend my good luck. The young fellow drove by at just the right moment and with his quick thinking and swift action we saved a 24 x 20 shop and 11 wood canoes counting the ones stashed in the attic. My Christmas came early.
God Loves Wood Canoes.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Amazing! Did you catch the young fellow's name? This would be an episode of Twilight Zone if, in fact, there's no record of that person actually existing...

 

[thirsty]

I know He's used wood canoes a time or two to get my attention, He loves us, we happen to love wood canoes. I'm glad it ended well, Merry Christmas.

 

[Greg Nolan]

Thank goodness -- and Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year of paddling.

 

[Treewater]

No sci fi here. The young man lives up the street but I am known as the "guy who has all the canoes" and evidently most people are favorly inclined toward canoes. I still can't believe it. That close to losing everything. I'd rather loose the house.

 

[JClearwater]

Wow!! You are soooo lucky. You must live right or something. I know first hand how violent and distructive fire can be. In 1991 I lost four canoes, a '79 MGB and a '68 Firebird convertible when my garage burned up. The MG was to blame - damn Brit electric system. No one hurt however so we count our blessings. You can never be too careful.

Jim C.

 

[MGC]

The MG was to blame - damn Brit electric system.

Rubber bumper MG's should self immolate, just not in the presence of good Firebird's and wooden canoes.

 

[David McDaniel]

Jim, I used to have MGs and there was a well known saying; ( Joseph Lucas, Prince of darkness!)

......dave

 

[JClearwater]

Sorry, did not intend to highjack the thread, just glad everything turned out ok in in Treewater's shop.

My fire happened on July 14, 1991. A few days before the WCHA Assembly at Paul Smith's. I still went to the assembly but with only one canoe. I didn't say anything about the fire to anyone - I didn't want to spend the whole weekend retelling the sad story. I lost a 1923 OT Charles River (unrestored, but still nice) a 1941 restored OT 50lb, a real nice restored Plycraft, serial #21 and a Mad River fiberglass solo canoe. Insurance paid what the cars were worth (well at least what the $ value was) but I sucked wind on the canoes. The fire was so hot it burned the tires off both cars - I was home at the time, but could do nothing. I don't think the fire department could have put it out if they were parked in the driveway at the start. I was glad at the time that the garage was not attached to the house. I would have lost that too. Moral of the story - eternal vigilance - fire is a killer of all the things we love and can happen very fast. I will also never own a house where the garage/shop is attached.

Ok, so enough of my past troubles - let's talk about something more pleasant.

Merry Christmas to all.

Jim C.

 

[Treewater]

Thanks JC. Sorry you were not so fortunate as I. I'm a great believer in fire extinguishers but the one I had the pin was bent. They must make those pins out of surgical steel and hard as I pulled I could not get the bottle to fire. Moral to that story, Don’t just own a fire bottle, check it for condition once in a while.
I also had a car burn in my driveway three years ago. A wood fire can be put out with enough water but a car fire is another matter. The fire department was here and could not extinguish the blaze but only keep it from spreading to the house. Maybe cars and canoes don't need to be stored together.

I tracked down the young man who put out the fire. I gave him a hundred dollar bill. He didn't want to take it. I explained I was "fining" myself for carelessness and he gets the fine. Hundred dollars was cheap, real cheap.
Merry Christmas

 

[Dave Wermuth]

And I think the Good Lord likes a canoe nut from Tennesee. Hey, wasn't the Ark just a big wood canoe?

 

[pklonowski]

Noah's Ark must have been either fully decked, or equipped with a really heavy duty sump pump....

 

[Brad C]

Wow!
You were lucky.
I had a similar experience a few years ago.
An electrical fire started in the garage and flames charred up the wall and all the way up the roof structure between 2 studs and rafters.
A neighbors son happened to be visiting and running by the house and notices something wrong. Several things fell into place to save the house and attached garage: his timing was perfect, any earlier and he would have been by the house when the fire started, the hose was on the lawn and was available for him to spray the fire and the fact that my wife had turned on the postlight for me (this was the wiring that caused the mess) as we usually are together when we leave the house and the light would be turned on and we would leave together.
This all happened about 3 feet away from a 1906 O.T double ender that I was planning on fixing for my brother. This was the boat our family used when I was a kid.
Not a bit of damage. Divine intervention no doubt.
Brad C