The fire and the snowstorm

We had the wood boiler working for a whole day. I had to run downstairs every ten minutes last Thursday to make the aquastats work and for the blower to kick on in the house. It was long day, but I got to understand how the whole thing works. Paul made some changes to it that night so that it could run automatically- kicking on when the temp reached a certain level and then also kicking off when it cooled. It worked great! We stayed up till midnight just make sure though. About three am I woke up to give Tayton some cough med. and the house was cold. I woke Paul up, he checked things out- everything seemed fine. At six am our alarm clock went off. Paul sat up and looked out the french doors and freaked. He said, the wood stove is on fire!! He ran out so fast. I could see the fire in the building and it looked as though it would burst. I could see him dart fast from the building that housed the wood boiler to the garage. It looked as though he was avoiding an explosion-I never seen my husband run that fast. He turned off the breakers in the garage, but they were already kicked off. The building is near the garage and our shed- about 150 feet from the house. Of course, the outside water faucet was frozen so he took out a basement window and hooked up the hose to my washtub. He used and extinguisher first to tame it, but it ran out really fast. I was so afraid of him opening the doors on it for fear that the fire would scorch him. He told me not to call 911- he seemed to think it was a "small fire". Umm- I would hate to see what he classified as a big fire! He got it out amazingly. It was heartbreaking. The month and a half of nonstop work on it and it was all gone. I cannot imagine how people that loose their homes must feel especially if they have worked alot on them. We were so thankful that there was no wind that morning!
The electrical parts, the pump, blower, part of the piping are all melted, but Paul thinks the stove itself is intact or at least "weldable". So he and his dad have been rebuilding a new much larger building all weekend long. I don't have an operating camera right now or I'd post some pictures.

So then we also got nine inches of snow Saturday. The guys have been building this new building in his dad's pole building/garage. That was good thinking since the weather obviously has not been condusive to all this. They still have the roof to construct, trusses that have to be figured once the walls are up I guess. The cause of the fire they think was that the first building was just too small and the front door got hot and started it. To me, it looks like the roof started first, but what do I know. We're not turning this in to our insurance- we just built it and it wasn't added to our policy- plus you always run the chance of higher premiums. My Dad and Joy and his Dad have helped us out with the financial burden of it all- bless their hearts. Home heating fuel oil is now higher than gasoline at the pump so it was clear that we needed to rebuild and get this thing going ASAP. The Lord's hand has been apparent- from my Dad's comforting phone calls, to supplies being donated, to even more wood being given to us. And even the gift of a filled fuel tank to relieve the pressure of running out. It's quite humbling to be in the position we are with Christmas approaching and yet the Lord knew how the details would be worked out even before I could worry. I'm thankful, more than could even be shown.