Fire devoured futuristic engineering historical treasure

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_20505 ... -treasures

Andy Hoover, grandson of President Herbert Hoover, built his home in a pine forest above Denver to withstand a wildfire — or so he thought.
In a matter of minutes, flames overtook it, and took with them irreplaceable pieces of memorabilia he was planning to move to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa.

Thank you. I was just coming in to post this.

Wish he would have had a chance to donate the artifacts.

I am sorry for their loss.

I am familiar with the cement homes. At least they know how vulnerable a home is with a wood deck and nearby windows and how fire can enter that way.

Makes the effort to change the wood deck to metal worth the effort, I hope.

I'm not sure what point of fireproofing your home with cement and metal decks is.

If the fire burns down everything in your neighborhood but your home survives, you'll be looking out on your warped metal deck at nothing but blackened landscape for many years to come. In that case, I'd rather lose my house and rebuild elsewhere.

That's what some from the Hi Meadow thought. Guess what? Their insurance wouldn't allow for that to happen. They had to rebuild or their bank not get reimbursed for the loan. Only those who owned free and clear had that option.

And after seeing the views they have, I would be inclined to clean it up and enjoy the new open vistas, although to my way of thinking it means a lot more wind.

As for the warped metal deck I considered that. Figure replacing it instead of a house would be easier. That's assuming though that the metal doesn't act just like a wood deck and conduct the heat/fire right through to the other weak link - windows.

If I ever had to do a rebuild I think I would do like trekker is doing for her aunt, backfill and use rock for decking and stairs. Either that or design w/o stairs or deck.

Seriously, I believe no one should have rare artifacts in the mountains where forest fires are likely. I would guess an insurance company would not insure them if that is where they are being stored.

In this case, take pix of them to look at on occasion and donate.

But I think lots of people in the mountains have some collectables that might be considered rare and not ready to store or part with. Where do you store larger items?

The man from the blog northforkashes.com had a case for his guns and the contents didn't survive.

Storing in a storage unit in the flatland is asking for trouble.

Maybe give away to other family who could still have the same problem, maybe not a forest fire but their homes burn down or stolen.

I guess I am thinking, learning from this event, store them somewhere other than deeper in the forest. This would not happen in the middle of town, or would be less likely. But a good discussion to have and think about.

I'm not sure why you think storing in a storage unit down the hill is asking for trouble, considering storing in the middle of a tinder dry forest is much worse.

I and a lot of my friends take our most treasured items down for city storage annually during fire season. Just make sure you pick a reputable storage company.

Reputable storage companies can also be broken into. What one friend learned recently when he stored a lot of expensive tools and equipment. Make sure your insurance will cover it.

And that particular reputable storage company, not saying all, another customer who stored his items gave the other units cockroaches. They sprayed but no guarantee they got them all.

I am not sure I would want to store in a storage company with the bed bug problems in Denver and suburbs. They can go w/o food for quite some time. You never know what the units are bringing in the way of storage.

akilina wrote: Reputable storage companies can also be broken into.

So can your mountain home.