The fire cause investigators came last Wednesday, Two days before I got home from a 3 week trip. I wish I was there at the time, but that just didn't coincide. They pulled a lot of equipment and stuff out of the shop, in an effort to find the ignition source. They took 11 pieces of evidence for forensic examination, including x-ray. So now the investigation is through with the building, the insurance company should be giving me back the building (legally). The clean up and property inventory will come after that. Walking around what they pulled out of the shop was quite humbling. Just the clean up and demolition will be a massive task. I am motivated now, and want to see a bare, cleaned, foundation ready to build upon. That will be the point I consider to be the start of the rebuild. I am looking forward to this ugly mess to be out of my backyard.

 

So far my wife and I have loaded and dumped 3800 lbs of building debris. No tools, or equipment. Just structure debris. Today we filled the large dump trailer again (3rd load), and will dump it tomorrow when the land fill opens. Only a few more piles inside the shop. Then the stem wall foundation and floor can be inspected by the architect, and if found to be not damaged he can draw up the new plans. Almost time to schedule the demolition.

 

Uh, are you going to try and save some of the old structure???? It ALL looks pretty damaged to me.

Concrete pad should be ok though.

 

The structure will be demolished and rebuilt new. I think the concrete survived, but the experts need to chime in before the county will approve new building plans. I am hoping we can just build off the existing stem wall foundation. Shop 2.0 will get a urethane floor coating, so I am not concerned about staining from the fire. That large pile remaining in the shop will take a while to remove as there are tools buried in it. It needs to be sifted through so I can inventory all my tools for the property claim.

 

At least your making some progress.

Did they ever figure out what started the fire? Was it the Li-Ion batteries??

 

Pick, pick, pick one piece at a time. Adds up after awhile. Lotta work. Helps when wifey chips in.

 

Two and a half weeks ago the fire cause analysis investigators took 11 pieces of evidence for forensic examination. They stated it could take as much as two months before that is completed, and there is a chance they may never pinpoint the exact cause. But AAA is going after Ryobi, and a Ryobi rep was here when they first exposed the start point of the fire. Everyone is saying the fire was electrical in nature. Part of the evidence they took included four wall outlets that were behind the workbench that the battery and charger were on. I hope they do pinpoint the cause, because I really want to know how this happened.

 

All of us would like to learn from it.

I don't particularly like speculating without evidence, but based on history I will not be surprised if Chinese QC (or lack of QC) factored into this. So many things come from China it's essentially impossible to be Chinese-free of products in our homes and property.

 

Finally, after all these weeks, I had the architect over to inspect the stem wall foundation. The good news is the foundation and floor can be reused. I should have the new plans ready to submit to the county by the end of the week. I still need to work out a schedule for the demolition with my contractor. Slowly, the process moves forward. In the 2-1/2 weeks since the insurance company released the building back to us, We have made three trips to the landfill with building debris. No tools or equipment, just burned debris. My wife and I hand loaded 6040 lbs. of debris in three trips. I am getting really close to paying someone else to do the balance.

 

I finally got to the truck chassis today. The fire investigators dropped it in my gravel, upside down. Then piled more stuff on it. I rolled it over and got the closest look at it yet. The bell housing melted away, disconnecting the trans from the engine block. So much work went into this '94 chassis. I am looking forward to starting over again with the'95 donor!