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Our friends are moving to L.A. for a year and we are going to rent their house from them. Although we are sad to see them gone for that long, the timing was perfect since we were going to rent in that neighborhood for a year anyway and sell our house before buying another.

I received a frantic phone call yesterday morning from my friend screaming that her house is on fire! Her husband was in California and was coming home that evening. The dryer caught fire while she was gone to take her son to school and when she came back she saw and smelled smoke outside, opened her front door and thick black smoke poured out. Luckily a neighbor had already called 9-1-1.

When she called I ran out of the house with my daughter, grabbed my camera, and took off. I arrived to  there to calm her down and when she did I went to snap a few photos of the firefighters. My battery was dead because I left the camera on all night plugged into my computer.

The fire was contained to the right side of the house and the attic, which is good, but everything in there is smoke damaged.

It looks like a faulty dryer may have been the culprit. It was a 2.5 year-old dryer and the vents were cleaned about a year ago when they changed the tube. AFD said the newer dryers have a shutoff sensor that stops the dryer before it overheats and maybe a bad thermostat was in there.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't clean your vents! Here is a link to the Flickr album of the photos I took for their families to see. All shot last night with a Nikon SB-800 Speedlight in pitch darkness while they walked around with flashlights.

Fire Photos <---- Link

Thankfully everybody is safe. Our friends wanted to also thank the great men and women of the Austin Fire Department for saving their house from worse devastation. They said within minutes the house was going to flash and may have been a total loss. Most all of their personal belongings, photos, and the kids toys are salvageable.

Since I have this public blog I said I would send a thank you from here, too.

Thank you AFD - From the Bundschuh Family.

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Posted by James Grayson, on 02-28-2008 , IP 70.113.198.99, Registered That's a long time. We were hoping to move in 3 or 4 months from now.   » Reply to this comment... Posted by Ed Lamaze, on 02-28-2008 , IP 24.166.231.72, Registered Thank goodness the family is safe. Stuff can all be replaced--not family.    Three years ago this week we experienced a house fire (old wiring) and were out of our home for almost 11 months druing the rebuild. It's a devastaing experience but one that could have been so much worse. We were all home asleep at the time of the fire and everyone got out safely.    I'm glad to hear you neighbors are safe.   » Reply to this comment...