I had went to bed about 8:00, gotta get up at 4:00 AM. My wife called about 9:30 to tell me that our house in Louisiana was on fire and was going to the ground. I was in Houston. I got up and drove in getting in about 3:30 AM.
I have two houses in Louisiana. I had recently moved out of this one and rented it out to a pastor and his wife. I thought about posting this the other day but I just felt bad.
I lost a house that I had raised my children in and had lived in for 30 years. My shop is there, all my pasture land and the woods that I love to hunt in. I lost a lot of sentimental value. I had 30 years of memories there.
I had moved most of my belonging out before I let renters move in towards the end of June. I left the living room furniture and a few appliances. I had just finished remodeling this house about 3 years ago except for one bathroom and bed room the wife and I lived in while I was remodeling. I went by last Saturday to visit the pastor and discussed remodeling the other bathroom and asked him to put a bill of material together for the job. The deal was, I purchase the material and they would do the work, them and some of their church members. I gave them several months free rent for their labor.
It meant a lot to me just to have good renters who would keep the place up.
I feel worse for the minister than for myself. He and his wife lost everything. Thank God, he had renters insurance.
He and his wife were at a ministers conference in Branson Mo. They had left early Sunday morning for the conference.
The Fire Marshal confirmed that lightening caused the fire. That's what I had figured. The neighbors said a bad thunder storm moved through about 7:00 and lightening had struck around my house.
Yes, I had land lord insurance. I had just swapped over from home owners insurance to land lords insurance on the 17th of last month. I even feel bad for the insurance company. The adjuster was with the Fire Marshal today when he did his investigation.