How To Burn Down Your House (And Why)

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April 2, 2012

How To Burn Down Your House (And Why)

Zillow The Tribune Star Mon Apr 02, 2012, 02:22 PM EDT

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It was late in the day when it finally happened. A puff of smoke appeared just over the rooftop at the far right side of the house, then another appeared, near the chimney.

Within moments smoke was pouring from the entire roof and flickers of orange flame began appearing in the windows.

A cheer went up from the assembled crowd as the flames grew; soon the roof weakened and began to collapse. A dozen firefighters stood by, cheering along with the crowd.

Huh?

Usually, a home burning to the ground is a tragedy, a disaster, a crime – or all three. This, however, was a welcomed event that would benefit the homeowners, the fire department, and dozens of families we’d never meet.

What?

OK, maybe a little background is needed here.

Why burn a house down?

The derelict home my clients had purchased wasn’t worth much; in fact the only real value was in the property, a sloping lot with several large trees, located in a quiet Midwestern college town.

This was the site they’d chosen for their dream home. Problem was, there was already a house there. Whenever possible, existing homes should be remodeled, renovated, reused. After all, reusing an existing home is the height of sustainability. But this little home was too far gone from years of neglect – it wasn’t worth saving.

But that didn’t mean it couldn’t serve a higher purpose (or two).

The owners first contacted the local Habitat For Humanity “ReStore," a discount home improvement store that re-sells new and reusable home improvement building materials. Habitat’s volunteers came to the house and picked up cabinets, appliances, doors, windows, hardware, and anything else they could salvage and resell.

Habitat uses the funds from reselling these salvaged items to advance their mission of eliminating substandard housing and creating homeownership.

That’s a great way to make use of perfectly good building materials that otherwise might have ended up in a landfill - and that the owners would have had to pay to haul away and that would have been a benefit to no one.

The next call was to the local fire department, to let them know they were planning on burning the house down. Obviously, they were thrilled! No really, they were – because the owners offered the house for a training burn. A training burn is a controlled burn, giving the firemen a chance to practice firefighting techniques in a real world scenario.

The fire department arrived after Habitat had taken away everything useful. They put wood pallets and hay bales in each room and burned them one at a time. The exercise lasted all day; they’d burn, put out the fire, and burn again.

They’d invited all the neighbors, who came with lawn chairs and blankets. It was almost like a Fourth of July picnic, only with bigger, hotter fireworks.

It was fascinating to watch the burn – and a sobering reminder of the dangers that firefighters face in service to the community. We were all kept about a hundred feet from the house but even at that distance, the heat from the fire was incredible.

After a full day of training, it was time to burn the house for real. The fire department set one more strategically located fire and let it runs its course. A backhoe stood by and used its bucket to push the house in on itself as it burned, keeping the burning debris within the home’s foundation walls.

When the fire ended, little was left but the foundation walls and ashes, saving the owners the cost of demolishing the house and hauling the debris to a landfill.

Before long, a new home rose where the old one had stood, and a new family moved into the neighborhood.

Somewhere, miles away, someone bought some building materials from Habitat For Humanity and helped put many more families into homes they thought they’d never have.

Not every house is a good candidate for a training burn; fire departments are picky about the ones they choose. And of course a house that can be renovated should be. But when it makes sense to burn a house down, the benefits spread throughout your community in ways you might not imagine and may never know about.

And it’s a great way to get to know your neighbors:

“Honey, these are the Smiths. They just moved in and they’ve invited us to their "house-warming" next week!”

Richard Taylor is a residential architect based in Dublin, Ohio and is a contributor to Zillow Blog. Connect with him at http://www.rtastudio.com/index.htm.

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Zillow.