In 1983, my parents decided to have the ‘Old Farm House’ destroyed, before someone got hurt. The house (Great Aunt Becky’s) had been empty, since 1959, and was falling apart. Anyway, my parents called many construction crews, getting prices, on how much it would cost to have the house torn down. The cost, as my mother put it, was outrageous. Through one of her many sources, she found out, that the local fire department would gladly burn an old house down and use it as a training platform. So, my mother called the local fire department, in Kilmarnock, and they set up a date to burn the old house down.
A little history: The Old Farm House was built in 1848 and was rebuilt in 1900; after the house had been damaged by an electrical storm fire (lightning hit a nearby tree, a burning branch came in through a window, and house was severely damaged). When the house’s owners (my great-great grandparents) rebuilt it, they used, instead of standard plasterboard, a wall compound called ‘sheet-rock’. This is not the same sheet-rock, as today, it was much harder and stronger and it won’t burn. Also, the roof was replaced with a steel roof (heavy, very strong metal), not like the tin roves of today.
One February day, in 1985, the local fire department along with a photographer from a local newspaper came to our road, to burn down an old house and to show trainees how to deal with a house fire. The fire captain parked the fire truck, in front of the ‘old farm house’, and the firemen pulled two 2-inch hoses from the truck. I walked over to the house, about a half-mile, from my parent’s house and when I saw where the truck was parked, I immediately told the captain that he might want to move the truck. As he explained, “the truck is exactly where is needs to be, in order to maintain the fire properly.” I said fine and I went over to the photographer. I asked the photographer, if he could take a couple of before shots and if he could make sure to get a picture, with the fire truck. He said, sure thing, but he also asked, “Why get the truck?” I told him what the captain had told me, about the truck’s placement and I told the photographer why it shouldn’t be there. My explanation seemed very reasonable to the photographer and he and I laughed, as he took before shots of the house and fire truck.
Now, I know a lot about fire (I like fire!) and what, I explained to the photographer, was this. This old house has a steel roof, not a tin roof that will melt and bend with heat, but a steel roof. Steel reflects heat and it can also; intensify heat, under the right circumstances. This house was built back in the day, when a 2-by-4 was actually 2 inches by 4 inches. The wood used, was not pine, like it is today, it was a hardwood; like oak, cherry or walnut. Hardwood burns at a much higher temperature than pine.
Now, the fun part. The firemen punch a few holes in the floor and in the walls and poured kerosene over the openings. They proceed to set the kerosene on fire and watch as the kerosene is burned off (the house did not catch fire). They proceeded with ‘Plan B’, and placed old tires in the house and set the tires on fire. We watched for several hours, as the tires burned and melted into the floor of the old house, but never caught the house on fire. The captain at this point was stumped. I walked over and asked, if I could try, since I knew this house better than anyone there. He said, “Sure, go ahead and try”. (I knew he expected me to fail, on my attempt, too). But, what he didn’t know, was that when we had salvaged everything that we wanted from the house, we had found that the stairs, that went to the second story were made of walnut. Hard to get started, unless you drilled holes in the wood and let it soak in kerosene. After 15 minutes of soaking, I tossed in a flaming bottle of kerosene, and the house was on fire! And, about 20 minutes later, the whole second floor was involved (firemen’s terms for heavy fire, throughout).
The training commenced and the fire got hotter. The photographer and I had moved back, a safe distance, and watched as the captain screamed commands to the trainees. Then, the captain yelled, “get another 2-inch line off the truck, and spray the roof”. A trainee ran down to the truck and started to get another hose, then he yelled back to the captain; “Hey Captain! I think we need to move the truck.” The captain ran over to the truck and with a look of amazement, he looked at me. The heat, being directed by the steel roof, was melting the paint off the side of the fire truck. I laughed a bit, and the photographer took pictures of the captain as he moved the ‘smelting’ truck. Yes, I said, “I told you so”, to the captain. He wasn’t too happy, but later he told me, “That he had never in his 25 years, with the fire department ever seen a fire hot enough, to get the paint bubbling on a fire truck”. I asked him, “How many fires had he gone to that involved a 1900’s house?” He said, “I think, this is the first”.
An article in the Rappahannock Record, came out the following week and read as follows:
Local fire department burns down ‘Old Farm House’ and melts fire truck, in the process.
Needless to say, it was very funny!