Tribute to a Neighbor's House

Wow... what a mess. I just walked up the driveway and poked around a bit (carefully!). I did NOT go inside or near walls that looked "iffy". No need to add further tragedy to the day. And wouldn't you know it, the wood pellets they wouldn't sell me (the renters might need them) are now a beautiful golden pile of unburnt but well-soaked sawdust. *sigh* Ah, well, we have 1 bag left and hopefully nicer days before us.

I hope I don't upset anyone by posting these pictures. There are/were no personal belongings or otherwise identifiable things. It's so strange to see a home you were familiar with in such a state. I am so grateful no one was in there.

This first picture is looking from the rear of the house straight south. In the left foreground is the former wood-pellets. Even though there are none to be had locally, and only very expensive ones regionally, I will try not to be bitter... You can see a basement access in the lower part of the picture. There were walls here. Towards the right is the rear of the refrigerator and to the left is the unique stove/oven with a microwave or additional oven above it.

This next picture is similar, angling a bit to the right (southwest). The room with the tall window was a bedroom.

This is looking somewhat upward into the living room, which is the front (south), eastern side of the house. This part of the roof/ceiling still exists, somewhat.

Here we are looking southwest again, from what would have been the back door towards the rear of the east wall. You can see kitchen cabinetry on the left, and the oven-combo barely on the right. I know she loved that secondary unit atop the stove, but couldn't take it with her. :(

This is along the western wall of the house, looking south again. You can see the eaves of the roof hanging down and resting on the ground by the foundation of the house. Wood shingles.

This is the suburban that belongs to the family that lives in the 5th wheel camper. The firefighters must've moved it, but obviously it was parked a bit near the house. You can't see it in the picture, but the headrest of the driver's seat is burned/melted along the side.

You can see the windows on the backseat and rear side are cracked.

They might need a new front blinker...

Now, I am no detective, despite my former diligence in watching CSI... However, I noticed a few things. There were at least four of these cans tossed into the yard, perhaps by the firefighters. Two or three had the can-bottoms bulging or blown out. Seems to me I recall my neighbor telling me the renters' apartment lease was up on April 1. That would be tomorrow.

If I had to guess (and I don't), I'd say the renters might've been removing any unwanted inhabitants before they began their move-in. In the above pictures, the stove/oven was not snug up against the refrigerator like it usually is. There is a propane supply to the house, and while I don't know for certain that it was for the oven, there's a good chance that it was. And maybe it had a pilot light...? If that is indeed what happened, I am so glad it waited until everyone was out. I don't know why it would take so long, though. I would assume the foggers would have been set last evening... the house was smoldering and damage was done by 6 this morning, but the firemen were still there. I don't know when the call came in but I assume it was early morning.

Life goes on, though. I don't know what the intended-renters will do. The nearby cows, however, plan to keep on grazing...