Photo by Dana Wachter, 11 Connects

Home Destroyed By Fire In Washington County, VA

By Josh Smith
Anchor / WJHL
Published: August 13, 2009

A massive house fire sent emergency crews scrambling this morning in Washington County, Virginia.

Just after 3 a.m., the call for help came from the 15000 block of Wilderness Road in the Lowery Hills Subdivision, just outside the Bristol, Virginia city limits.

No word yet if anyone was injured.

Washington County, Virginia Fire and Rescue called for backup from three other departments including the city of Bristol, Virginia.

11 Connects’ Dana Wachter is at the scene to provide live updates on 11 Connects at 5 a.m. and 6 a.m..

Update at 5:49 a.m.:

11 Connects’ Dana Wachter is at the fire scene. She reports the 4,000 square feet home is engulfed in flames. Several firefighters escaped the burning home after almost getting trapped inside. That’s forced firefighters to pull back and tackle the fire from the outside.

One person was taken to the hospital with an injury, but we don’t have specifics about this right now.

Update at 7:05 a.m.:

11 Connects’ Dana Wachter reports firefighters believe the charred shell of the home could collapse.

The man at the home who was taken to the hospital is back at the fire scene after being treated for smoke inhalation.

Have to say that this day really didn’t turn out anything like I’d planned. Finished my book The Nine, so I guess it’s time for some Alleve and bed, to dream about Supreme Court Justices or something. I did also manage to get an ink cartridge today, so it wasn’t a total bust. I have declined tomorrow’s “Tinkerbell Fairies” party invite, though, to remove any possibility of slacking off. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel better and be more productive. REALLY looking forward to Monday’s appointment with Dale. Despite Dalton’s wise words to the contrary, sometimes pain does hurt, and I’m ready to be rid of it.

So, Thanksgiving in San Diego, Christmas in Chattanooga, New Years in Alabama is the plan. As such, this past weekend was our “holiday” visit to mom’s, since we likely won’t go back up until February (her birthday). The trip isn’t TOO long, though, so we’ll see, but that is the usual schedule.

Only somewhat spontaneously, I have somehow conned other members of my family to pitch in with me on a big screen tv for mom, to finally replace the tiny little thing we all struggle to watch movies on at family gatherings when she guilts us into staying home instead of going to a theater while we’re visiting her. Er… um.. I mean, well, not just that, but also because she has often commented on ours or sis’s tv’s and about how dad had always wanted a bigger tv in that room, but they’d never gotten around to it. We’re already paying for her to have beaucoup cable channels since she’s a hermit, so why not improve the TV. And, well, Sears cooperated nicely with the sale and the 2 years no interest and the local delivery and such.

We went up this weekend to make sure all was well, set everything up, swap her cable box for an HD box and generally get her over the inevitable technology fright that would set it upon laying eyes on it. I am happy to report she seems to LOVE it! And, I figured it would be nice to have in place as the rest of my family gathers up there for Thanksgiving later this month, and for her in case she decides to hermit-up Christmas by staying home alone again.

While there, we also took her old tv and vcr and put it in a guest room — there’s no other cable run anywhere, but it’s a nice place to just pop in some of the old videos that dad used to take and be sentimental. Mom confessed she has been very sad lately, wishing that she’d still had his voice on an answering machine message at least, and regreting that he was almost always behind the camera in those videos. “He barely ever talks,” she said, though she did like to watch everyone being goofy and reacting to him filming. With just the straight tv-vcr setup, there’s no confusing swapping things around to watch a tape for her, so she seemed happy with that.

Overall, it was a sort of sad, nostalgic trip for me. Moving the giant old tv cabinet that held a tiny tv and drawers full of VHS tapes revealed a long unseen section of the brick mantel and hearth dad had built in the den. The new flat panel tv and modest wood-iron stand are especially nice for me because you can still see it all behind them. It really looks “right” there to me now, better.

Then of course there is the inevitable “messing with pictures” that is apparently a habit of mine and something mom expects that I do each visit. I have to rearrange the family photos she has out, swap some out for different ones, just because there are SO many in the drawer to choose from, and that leads to the flipping through photos albums and more talking about dad. I actually snagged two albums to bring home this trip, so I can scan some photos to have for myself. Mostly dad and me, lots of baby pictures, and some to me that seem funny because it shows my siblings as teenagers in the 70s holding baby me. There’s some sweet clothes in those photos, I tell you, and haircuts, too. Or lack thereof, in the case of a couple of hippie brothers. =)

On the up side, got to spend Friday night out with the Phatass niece, who really needs a new nickname. Something like the sleepwalker niece, who apparently hasn’t figured out a schedule in college yet, and apparently barely sleeps or makes time to eat. Not sure how she could get skinnier, but she is, and combined with the racoon-eyes, she is looking so tired of it all. We’ve been trying to encourage her over this hump of the first semester of college, and I think she’ll make it, but I sure hope she figures out how to deal soon before she snaps like the twig she is turning into. We also went to see Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which has got to be the funniest thing ever. Just go.

Saturday we got the flip-side of the coin as we hung out with eXstranged brother and his “lady-friend” for a nice dinner (which he picked up unexpectedly as a late birthday surprise) and then several hours of “chatting”. I think it went well, and I hope it sets them at ease a bit that “the whole family” doesn’t hate her/them. Lady-friend only got started badmouthing on Phatass niece, but I shut her up suggesting that she needs to let go of all that anger and quit dwelling on the past, because it can’t be good for her health to let an 18-year-old drive you insane.

I have to say, though, my favorite thing about their feud is all centered around Phatass niece “banning” dad’s lady-friend from visitng their house. SO, lady-friend has banned phatass from coming to her house. Since Phatass’ house is technically my brother/her dad’s house, why would anybody care what the kid had to say about banning anybody from coming over? Doesn’t Dad have the say in that? In fact, didnt dad and lady-friend already decide that lady-friend shouldn’t be at his house because he is technically still married to a psycho woman, even if they have been separated almost 2 years now, because even the notion that he already has a lady-friend could be bad for his nasty, long and drawn out divorce proceedings?

So yeah, it was a couple-hours of nice chat mixed with a hint of crazy that I didn’t quite understand, but I’m not about to step in and try to do anything more than to remind her that she is dealing with an immature child, in essense (18 or not), and to remind phatass niece that she is overreating to things, as it is all about the drama in her world. I am confident that said niece WILL grow up some now that she’s off at college, as the visible signs of those growing pains are all over her face. If we can just get lady-friend to forgive and forget some youthful hot-headedness, I think they might just all be able to get along. There’s certainly no forcing it now, though, and I do kind of feel sorry for eXtranged brother caught in the middle of it all.

Anyway, enough family babble. It was a very long weekend, and bless the dear heart of JamesT who endured it all by creating some busy-work for himself in the form of using dad’s garage to work on my car a bit. It was quite cold, but I’m sure the escape time from my crazy family (me included) was well loved. My car previously had 6 speakers, only 3 of which were working. Now I have 4 fully-functional and much better sounding speakers, which made the ride home quite enjoyable. I guess we’re all about the speakers these days. One comment from me that listening to music in the house now made me dread our long car rides with my crappy speakers, and he remembers. He’s a keeper.

I’m 90% packed, 200% bummed, and 50% ready to leave on my work trip tomorrow. Fingers crossed for no big support issues next week, please. Let it be an easy trip.

Apparently eXstranged brother is MIA and phatass is worried. Now that mom’s tried calling him three times, so is she. My notion is he is probably on a trip or something, living the life of an early retired “single” man who just got his last kid off to college. Maybe he’s bought a Corvette and is busy cruising — it always was one of the few things we really had in common as siblings, Corvette lust that is. Meh, and a fondness for cruising. But I digress.

I think it’s too early to be worried, three weeks or no. Likely “daddy” is just trying to cut the cord on his college daughter, and wants to have contact with her on his own terms. Did I say I agreed with it? No, but I could understand it being his course of action. From his POV, I can see where this has been a month of potential peace for him, and everyone deserves some of that. It is tough to be the college-age kid on your own for the first time and on the other end of that, though. It’s only month one, though, and here’s hoping that they will eventually find the balance of their new dynamic.

It was a short call with phatass, because I’m just so distracted and completely bummed. I know I have to do better at keeping connected with people. I get so caught up in … well, my own shit, I guess… that I have been forgetting to take time for people I care about. I miss my friends and family. Thank goodness JamesT lives under the same roof or we’d likely be estranged ourselves. Though, that bizarre sometimes hermit tendancy does seem to be something we have in common with each other. Good thing we seem to be able to hermit together.

Well, that wasted time. Must finish getting things ready. Flight leaves at lunch tomorrow.

However, I did manage last night to finish reading the copy of Twilight that phatass niece bought for me, and catch a little sun over lunch while I finally finished Watchmen. Seems the next two books in the Twilight series are on Audible, and I have two credits to burn… guess I’ll see if Comcast will cooperate enough to pick them up.

Also, we’ve been watching the mini-series Generation Kill on HBO, and catching up on it last night, there was a preview for TrueBlood, without too much info. But… waitress… vampires… it had to be, and sure enough it seems the creator of Six Feet Under is doing a show based on those wonderful/horrible Charlaine Harris books about the telepathic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse. I subjected James to just part of one of those on audiobook on a road trip once, and I think I nearly gagged over the thick southern drawl of the main character as voiced. In the show, Anna Paquin (Rogue) has the lead… can’t wait to hear her. Please let them dial it back.

Horrible as they are, they’ve made great “while-working” drivel to listen to, so I’ve enjoyed the whole series. I think the show, especially headed up by Alan Ball, will be interesting to watch, likely sexy, dark and absurd.

And, yet somehow we still have 4 movie passes remaining….

Ask JamesT about Wargames on the big screen last night. Hint: Many geeks lined up to take a photo in front of the giant Windows error screen that stopped the movie.

The phatass niece is on the way home. Six-flags done. High Museum done. Melting Pot done. Stonecrest Mall shopping done. Wargames done. And The Dark Knight: IMAX Experience done. Oh, and some school shopping, too.

Good week!

Really Stupid Phone Pics:
Look, it’s JT setting his watch at “the beach”. We very nearly mooned the ducks, and I don’t mean the quacking ones, but thankful for everyone, we hadn’t had enough to drink yet.

Need to redirect the conversation? Point up! MY isn’t that an interesting ceiling? Just LOOK at that!? Handy ceiling to have around, as you just never know what weird directions a conversation can take…

Okay… what does THIS peephole let you see before you let someone in?

Shooting pool and drinking in the Marriott lounge until the wee hours.

It was mostly just us and the drunken group of ladies seen behind the table here, leftover from one of the wedding receptions. Just say “Hairless fajina” to James and watch him miss a shot. Or don’t, he might “drop it like it’s hot” or he might just demonstrate our newly found “most annoying laugh in the world”.

A crappy camera phone shot of a pretty sun rise lighting the lake outside our window.

Whether or not you’re checked into the hotel, if you’re a “guest of the spa” you can use their pool for the day — indoor, outdoor, 2 hot tubs, sweet. Noted for future reference. Sun didn’t cooperate much yesterday, but made up for it today.

My crappy camera phone shot of a sunrise margarita came out better than my actual sunrise shot, which isn’t saying much. Tasty beverage though.

Also managed to fit in a very late night trip out for the “anniversary Krystal chili-cheese fries”, and discovered how cool it is to have a special park pass to get in late at night.

This week is going to be busy busy busy. Monday conference call, Tuesday work at work day in Kennesaw/ training/ conference call with California… Wednesday, man we sure would like to fit in going to 6-flags at some point if the weather holds out. Phatass niece will be in town sometime tomorrow afternoon for the week, with her future roomie’s attendance still unconfirmed. Some night, if we get her errands all run, I’d also like to suggest a Braves game or even just painting pottery while she’s here being touristy. This is possibly the last time we’ll see her before she moves north for college. Some fun would be … well, fun. Perhaps we can fit in a trip up to use these passes for Batman in IMAX.

Lucky for us, it was easy enough to drop the Ganey Bomb to the cop, since Pete knows everybody, and suggest that we were all Ganey family in town for a reunion and fireworks show. We got off with barely a warning.

Next night when we were scattered directing traffic for our own fireworks show, it seems Pete neglected to tell us that his mother would be bringing his grandmother from the nursing home to see the show. She has a walker, and as a result, he had promised them a priority parking spot. They arrived after two other folks with wheelchairs and walkers, and after the firetrucks, so we really were out of close parking. Phatass runs up to the car as it tries to pull out beside the driveway right into our caution tape and tells them they can’t park there. Recognizing Pete’s mom’s car, I head up just in time to hear her frantically trying to tell Sarah that she is Pete Ganey’s mother — because using his full name is the only way to drop the Ganey bomb properly.

Spent nearly an hour on the phone again with “fatass” tonight, her call prompted by a rambling email I sent which caused her to laugh so loud she got in trouble with her restranged Dad. She told me she’s glad I’m not a mom, because, she said “you’re too smart. You know all the tricks. Any kid of yours would catch total hell all the time.” I think it was a compliment, but you know… with the kids these days, how do you tell? Phat? Fat? Maybe I should call her “phatass.”

No doubt, though. I love her.

Now I just need to do a graphic to countdown her days until freedom. 3 months and counting as of today.

This weekend, I met some guy who I used to call a brother… whom I haven’t seen since 1990, despite the fact that he has lived about 20 miles from my mom all these years.

He only vaguely even looks like the guy I remember, really vaguely. Still has the same voice, I guess. He looks like he’s lived a life that has taken quite a toll on him, frail, pale, crippled, constant pain that shows in his face. A person who would probably garner some sympathy in a stranger, so it was easier to detach and just think of him as a stranger in order to function. He doesn’t seem to want forgiveness for anything he may have put anyone in the family through so much as understanding for how he got into the mess he is currently in. He seems to be punishing himself plenty with regrets, but he also seems, probably thanks to his therapist, to understand that the people he’s hurt may or may not care about how he is punishing himself.

He says he’s out to reconnect now for his daughter’s sake, but I would hope it’s for his own. His daughter seems well-adjusted enough, if on the rebellious end of the spectrum, but not anything unexpected from the product of such a repressive household. His wife, her mother, has been and still is genuinely insane. The more I hear about her life, the more I actually feel sorry for her. To live with that kind of paranoia, with the constant fear that you’re about to lose everything, and I’m quite sure never actually feeling love… the condition begs some pity, but from her daughter now, there is no sympathy, only hate. The woman needs to be hospitalized.

“Brother” Bob has not been unchanged by his years of marriage to such a crazy person. I find him to be mentally and physically weak, and with the recent separation from his wife, he’s managed to build some kind of umbilical cord to his daughter, who seems to be all he is living for. He isn’t a person on his own anymore, he is simply her dad. Again, the situation should beg sympathy, as the 17-year-old senior begins her last year, with distant colleges already in her future.They laugh and tell us stories of her psycho mother following her to high-school to observe who she talks to, and I have images of lonely dad looking for a house near a distant college, and meeting his baby-girl for lunches on campus.

He is having an effect on us, though. Mom, most of all. Everyone is worried about him hurting her again. I can only see her consumed by worry about him, and coming back into her element as the mother he needs. In a year, if he hasn’t rationalized a way to move with Sarah, I see him getting a place with mom. He needs the care, and she needs the task. It could be mutually beneficial, if it wouldn’t make every other member of our family sick with the notion. It makes me sick. He really is in constant pain. A former strong working man has been brought down to pale and fragile with pain. More surgeries are in his future. In this scenario, I see my father… going from unstoppable hero of a hard-working man into shadow of himself in a matter of months. Death follows that. These men don’t know how to go on when they’ve lost their ability to live the only life they know — with their hands and the strength of their back.

Sarah, I’m very glad I met. She called us the “awesome side of the family” which I hope means she’ll stay in touch. We’re not parental types, but I hope we can be people she can turn to in need.

My sister is anxiously awaiting my report on the whole weekend, and I can only wonder if she’ll wait until we see her in person this coming weekend, or the phone will be ringing before then. I really don’t know what to tell her. As the youngest, I didn’t grow up with Bob. He’s old enough to be my father. I’m closer in age to his daughter than to him. That isn’t true for sis, though. Losing him was just more of a blow, I know that. Maybe that’s why I could be the first sibling he sees after all this time.

I will say one other thing, though. I took no pains to leave out any detail of relating all the wonderful family times we’ve had since we’ve seen him. Weddings, vacations, and gatherings at mom’s in particular. All things he should have been a part of, but choose not to be. I went on about my sister and her great husband and their daughters and their wonderful house and how close we all are. It felt good to make him really feel that he was an outsider. Inside I was saying, so what you’re so much older than me and you can claim you never really knew me…. Sis is older, too, and she is nothing if not my sister. We can talk. We are there for each other. We can have fun together. Your age difference excuse is just that, an excuse. You’ve missed out, and your weekend good deed to bring mom down to see my house isn’t going to change that.

Now, I think I need to write a letter to my sister to just thank her for being her and tell her how much I love her.