Rubble

What's your favorite possession in the whole world? Do you know where it is?

If you know what it is, but not where it is, I suggest you find it and get a safe deposit box to store it in. It's obviously something that you love, but don't need to touch every day.

If you don't know what it is, take some time to figure it out. Then you can decide whether to put it somewhere safe - or to leave it out or put it out in display, so that if you have 10 minutes to leave your life as you know it, you at least have a chance of grabbing your favorite thing.

Free advice, take it for what it's worth.

It was a brass tea pot. The stucco beam behind was a porch support. Stucco is supposed to be fire-retardant. The insurance adjuster said it took a fire of at least 7,000 degrees to melt the I-beam in the background.

Leaded glass that used to be a bowl and green marble counter tops, now white crumbly chunks. The trees were that far from the house.

Burned pine trees.

My dad and my brother consider a portion of the basement, and what might have been on the floors above the hole. How did things shift as the house came down?

Sifting in hopes of finding... something.

Carrying rubble out of the cleared areas of the basement in hope.

 Fire mitigation was done, see how far apart those trees are. In this firestorm, it didn't help. Structure survival was all luck of the draw. 509 homes lost, and countless garges, barns and other structures. Yes, we are thankful to the firefighters, or far more would have been lost.

A Hummel, a David Winter Cottage and a leaded glass crystal collection after a 7,000 degree plus fire.