Don and I were out on some house watch errands this morning and thought we’d drive by the storage area to see if there was anything new…….and there was!
We arrived as a specially rigged semi was loading one of the destroyed RVs onto its bed. It was a highly specialized rig where the bed tipped back and with the use of a heavy duty winch, the driver (working single handedly by the way) was able to pull the burned up mess onto his trailer.
Jack Thomason (from Colorado) was also there watching the process as it was his RV being towed (should say “carried”) away. He said it was a 2005 Winnebago Vectra which obviously is now a total loss. Jack told us the sad story of some of the personal items that were stored in the motor home at the time of the fire. He had a set of jewelry making tools inherited from his brother along with some precious metals and some fine finished decorative pieces. Jack had already packed up all his woodworking tools as they were getting ready to head back to Colorado within the week along with all of their winter clothing. Jack’s wife, Jerri, is an avid quilter and had some beautiful quilts and finished goods packed for the trip back home.
After sifting through the ashes with the fire marshal, they could tell that these items were still in the rig during the fire which rules out theft. It sickens me even more to think that the vandals set the fire just for the thrill and malicious intent.
I hadn’t realized the damage that was done to neighboring rigs before. As we stood there, I looked around and could see the melted lens covers, ripples in the fiberglass, and singed parts on several rigs.
Jack and Jerri will be working closely with their insurance agent and the fire marshal until their lives settle down again after such a traumatic event.
I took one final photo to send to Jack for his scrapbook as they were finishing the clean up process.
The salvage driver secured the load with cables and tarps for the ride to an insurance inspection yard in Phoenix.
Now there is just a pile of black ash and residue to clean up and two more rigs just like this one to go.
The incident is still under investigation. Will keep you posted when we hear more detail.
