Jerry MacNeish - Fire

[ko-lek-tor]

Hey fellow CRG'ers, I tried to call Jerry MacNeish today and a recording said that he suffered a fire (Not sure if in shop or home). This may already be known by other members, so I don't want to pry  into his personal matters. I believe I can speak collectively that we all express our heartfelt sympathy and our prayers are with you in this difficult time. God Bless Jerry.

[ZLP955]

Hope all is well; I've tried to reach Jerry a couple of times over several weeks, by email and PM, but guessed something was up ( in addition to him being a very busy man!). He posted here within the last couple of days though, so hopefully it wasn't a serious incident for him or his customers......

[buenymayor]

I sure hope that if this is true, it was minor and no one got hurt.

[JKZ27]

I heard about the fire while at Nationals and that is was caused by lightning about a week or so prior. Jerry was working and judging so I'm pretty sure no one was hurt, physically. I also believe the cars are safe but his inventory may have suffered.

[elcamino72]

Hope all is okay!

[MyRed67]

Hope all is going OK for him.

[Jerry@CHP]

Guys, lightening hit the back of my building and caught fire.  The back half of the upstairs was badly burned but overall it could have been much worse.  I lost quite a few NOS parts that I have been saving for over 40 years but I was able to get the cars out safely.  Only damage on the main floor was from the water and fire department.  The sheet rock got wet and then fell down from the ceiling.  Will take about a month or so before I'm back up and running again.  10 trusses have to be replaced along with the plywood and shingles. 

What boggles my mind is why this happened when there is a 4 story oak tree right next to the back of my shop.  Couple that with the fact that the back wall of my shop is about 10-12 feet under ground (building was built into a bank) meaning that the tall peek of the roof is only about 12' out of the ground.

Thanks for your concern,

Jerry

[Kelley W King]

I have been repairing lightning damage for 35 years now. It hardly ever hits what would make sense. Thats while I don,t try to take cover when it is lightning. There is no where to hide. Hope you have good insurance.

[69Z28]

Guys, lightening hit the back of my building and caught fire.  The back half of the upstairs was badly burned but overall it could have been much worse.  I lost quite a few NOS parts that I have been saving for over 40 years but I was able to get the cars out safely.  Only damage on the main floor was from the water and fire department.  The sheet rock got wet and then fell down from the ceiling.  Will take about a month or so before I'm back up and running again.  10 trusses have to be replaced along with the plywood and shingles.  

What boggles my mind is why this happened when there is a 4 story oak tree right next to the back of my shop.  Couple that with the fact that the back wall of my shop is about 10-12 feet under ground (building was built into a bank) meaning that the tall peek of the roof is only about 12' out of the ground.

Thanks for your concern,

Jerry

Hey Jerry, Gary from Clayton Delaware. Was this before or after you shipped out those 2 set of valve covers you re-skinned for me? I had no idea until later that your shop got hit. I did get them, but I would have understood if you couldn't ship them out right away. Oh and great job on the covers, too.


On the lightning thing, my wife and I just moved into her parents house after her dad passed 2 years ago. They put it up in 95 and I noticed they had these metal spikes running alone the roof top so many feet apart with a huge braided cable going in the ground. I have heard of these things but never really knew/know if they really work. Do they?

[1968 Z28]

On the lightning thing, my wife and I just moved into her parents house after her dad passed 2 years ago. They put it up in 95 and I noticed they had these metal spikes running alone the roof top so many feet apart with a huge braided cable going in the ground. I have heard of these things but never really knew/know if they really work. Do they?

Gary...I don't know about the older house grounding setups but I worked for A T & T for 35 years and in their buildings every metal piece in the building was grounded to earth ground by heavy wire.

  There was what we called a "Ring Ground" system that consisted of heavy copper wire that ran around the entire inside perimeter of the building and every metal piece inside and outside of the building was connected to this Ring.  This wire was in turn connected at various intervals to a corresponding buried wire that ringed the outside of the building that in turn was attached at various intervals to long copper ground rods driven in the ground.  So  A T & T did indeed believe in a lightning ground system....it had to be that way in order to keep the lightning out of the electronic equipment.

[janobyte]

Whew--I've been a professional FF for twenty years this March ,sounds clique but luckily it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Never good calls  , just some better than others. Very small time frame when lightning hits (could be in the vicinity) before the smoldering wood takes off , than it's a squaring factor (doubles in size every minute). Food for thought ,there are residential sprinkler systems out there for fire protection if local response times, for what ever reason , are slow--- > 1-1.5 minutes first pumper on scene.

[Hans L]

Sorry to hear Jerry.   I enjoyed meeting you at your shop last year.   Hope you get the shop rebuilt quickly and can salvage some of the NOS components.   Glad to hear you got the cars out!

Hans