On Nov 24th at noon David, Chip's father, went to their house to let Gertie outside for a bit. She was old and didn't make the 10th Anniversary Beach trip. Walking up to the house he noticed Chip's garage door was open about a foot. He ran to the steel basement door, felt the heat, and opened it as the smoke billowed out. He quickly closed it, ran around to the front door, broke out the storm door glass and unlocked the front door. The house was full of smoke, and just as they tried to crawl in the Fire Dept pulled up. The best efforts of the brave firemen could not get to Gertie as the floor joists were scalding hot and quickly collapsed into the basement. Within several minutes the roof collapsed, totally engulfing the house in flames.
So many have requested help, so here I am for them, hoping they can slowly rebuild and have a beautiful home again. May sweet old Gertie rest in peace