House fire next door

[geekette]

We awoke to the smell of smoke at 3AM two nights ago. The attic over our neighbors' garage was in flames so I called 911 while my DH tried to wake the household. Thankfully, no people or pets were in the house. It took a couple hours to extinguish because it kept reigniting higher. One half of the house was badly burned, and the other half has a lot of water damage.

The police managed to ping a cell phone in Ohio, which belonged to the grandfather. They also found the daughter in the next town, even though I didn't know her last name. The owners of the house, however, are in Europe on vacation, due back tomorrow. They may have come back early, but I haven't seen them, and we're leaving on vacation ourselves.

The insurance company sent a company over to secure the house. Water, electricity, and gas turned off, plywood and tarp on the roof, front door put back on.

Everything must be moldering in that dark and hot house. Fridge, freezer, furniture...  The daughter pulled a few things, but not much.

It's not really my business, but what now? 

[Greenback Reproduction Specialist]

Wow that is scary, we had a neighbor over the winter that lost his cabin to fire up the road from us. He installed the woodstove to close to a combustible wall(mistake 1), the stove had a bad rope gasket (mistake 2), and he stuffed it completely full before leaving to run for town(mistake 3).

Good time to check your own smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, electrical outlets, gas valves, etc.

[Linea_Norway]

Scary situation. Lucky that no people were hurt physically.

What now?

I think you should primarily leave it do the daughter or maybe confer with her.
If any froozen food goes lost, your neighbours will be able to get both the food and the fridge covered by their insurance. A friend of mine had this last summer and got everything covered.
If you are affraid of more fires because of electricity taking fire, you could go in (only if it is safe) and pull out some plugs.
Does the house need to be barred for burglars? Then again, talk to the dauther about what to do about it.

[geekette]

I'm not worried; I wish I could help, but the insurance company seems to have everything secured.  Partly I'm just curious, partly I'm wondering if there's a possibility of major work being done quickly, as we'll be out of town and I our cats get flighty.  It took much coercing and tuna to get one back to the house after the fire, and I doubt he'd be any better for our cat sitter (she's a friend who has a "staycation" here when we're gone).

I just talked to a neighbor across the street, and she says when her son came home at 2AM, nothing was amiss.  At 3AM, though, one of the two garage doors was open and there was fire above.  Interestingly, the daughter was told that heat from a fire can cause a garage door opener to activate.  They don't know what circuit lit the fire (there was also a vent fan in the attic above), but it was determined to be an electrical fire.