Has this happened to anyone you knew?

Do any of you know somebody whose house burned down?

I found out that one of my old teachers lost her house in a fire a week ago. She and her two kids made it out fine, but unfortunately her two Chow dogs didn't make it. She's devastated at their loss.

My niece is learning fire safety in school.

Growing up my dad was a volunteer fire fighter in my home town. There were many days where he would get called to a fire while myself and the rest of the family where in the family car with him. I remember him driving what seemed to me at the time like a 'Nascar driver' to get there. I've seen peoples houses burn...and rather I knew them or not it was never an easy thing to watch. Fire safety is such an important thing that many people just sort of shrug off...which is deadly sad. I also had a friend in elementary school years ago die in a fire in her home. I guess because of my past I grew up with a healthy fear and respect for fire and things that can produce it.

I'm really sorry to hear about your former teachers home and pets. I don't blame her for being devastated. I hope that your local red cross and her friends/neighbors will step in to help her and her family.

Yeah, when I was 19, my track coach's house burned down...he went back in to save his puppy and he died. He was only like 24 at teh time. His sister was a senior in high school at the time, so a year behind me. It was a big loss for the whole community because we all knew the family is our small town and him being a coach. [ I haven't thought about that in years, it still very sad.]

Someone burned down a derelict, wooden chateau of my grandpa after he had passed away. So many memories burned to charcoal. I have a suspicion of who it might have been and it's probably my uncle since he was indirectly responsible for my grandfather's death. It's still a dick thing to do, burning memories away like that.

Not burned down completely but we lost a kitchen, living room, and deck to a fire about 20 years ago. It was very awkward to come home from school and see my dad putting out a fire in our own house(he is a firefighter). I guess my mother was cooking with oil and it somehow caught a roll of paper towels on fire. Man did the other firefighters give my dad shit for that after.

My room was the closest room and my dvd player(this was when they were still $700 for a basic player) and Saturn/PS1 all were damaged from the soot in the air. None of our dogs were hurt fortunately.

My father's house burnt down when he was younger. Everybody made it out of it okay, but a lot was lost. He used to tell me stories about his record collection that was almost entirely lost in that fire. I don't believe they had insurance, so it was probably pretty devastating for them.

I had an acquaintance in middle school whose family home caught on fire. They all made it out fine. Their house was still standing, he lived a block or two away from me, but it was completely destroyed on the inside. They had to stay at a hotel for some time, but I'm not sure what happened after that. I later found out that kid sexually assaulted a good friend of mine at a party years later. I felt a little less bad about the fire thing after I heard that.

The closest thing that has ever happened to me, is having a home broken into and a bunch of belongings stolen. That was really shaking. Luckily I didn't lose anything completely irreplaceable, aside from some video game saves and whatever was on my old laptop, and insurance was a big, big help. Get home or renters insurance, kids.

When I was in Junior High my mom's co-worker's house burned down. That's when she found out her husband was trafficking drugs though the used cars at his used car lot.

My house burned down.

Why do you ask?

The closest I can relate to that is seeing my neighbor's car go up in a fireball across the street. Also, when my train stopped at a station, there was a parked car that had a fire on the hood. Within 30 seconds, the entire car was engulfed, and, the terrible person that I am, I just thought, 'I hope the train isn't delayed because of this fire. I don't want to be late for tacos.'

My cousin's house burned down. It sucked at the time, but she got a boatload of insurance money on it, and now she has a much bigger house on the same lot.

I see your knowing someone who's house burned down, and raise you knowing someone who's mother drugged them and their siblings, murdered their father, who was tied up in the garage, with the help of the man she was having an affair with, and then attempted to burn the house down afterwards and run away with the kids...

I knew a musician guy who lost a huge collection of vinyl and some guitars to an apartment fire.

Unfortunately yes. When I was about 14 years old a nearby family had a serious house fire. It was Christmas and the parents had gone out for some drinks, the tree caught fire and the children (all very young) were terrified so they hid in a wardrobe. None of the children lived and to this day I always feel uneasy around Christmas trees. There was also an Ex of Sisters who turned out to be a psycho, he threatened to burn the house down while we were all asleep. My Mom isn't someone who takes threats lightly so she hired someone to give the guy a fright, long story short the Ex got the beating of his life and his leg was broken when a car crashed into it. We had detectives watching the house for a while because they believed the threats were real, when they found out the guy got what was coming to him they didn't have a negative word to say.

Nice vague post title you've got there. Couldn't you just put "Has anyone ever had their house burn down?"?. Anyway what's your point? Just an open ended question?

Our house almost burned down once. My dad lit a match to light candles in the living room, and then he went to the kitchen to help with dinner. A minute later, cue Dad with the fire extingisher spraying on flames devouring a sofa with the whole floor covered in smoke. We think what happened was the match head split into two without him realizing, and then the piece ignited on the furniture. We don't trust matches anymore.

I have experienced a car fire, however. The entire engine and front of the vehicle melted.

There are at least 2 posts in this thread that are so sad they made me want to jump off my roof. Please, this thread needs to be locked before anyone else feels the urge to share the most horrifically sad story that they can remember.

When I was in elementary school, I knew a girl whose home burned down. Our school had a fundraiser for her and her family, and they ended up moving, so everything turned out well for them.

About a year ago, my step dad's brother and his family had some dogs that had recently had puppies. While they were away from their house for a couple hours, the room the dogs were in caught on fire and the dogs died from smoke inhalation. Luckily, there was only minor damage to the home.

Always heard a rumor about some kid I used to know who burned his house down trying to cook a poptart in the toaster. Couldn't veryify the claim because I couldn't find his house.

I just remembered my cousin burned down his mothers house when he was 17. It was an account, probably smoking on the sofa. House burned to teh ground, but nobody was in it...or the got out. That was at a time when I was not close to that side of the family...so the repercussions were not very close to home for me.