PJ,

Not to stir back up the proverbial ashes, but I went back and read your 2003 post and believe it deserves some acknowledgement.

What a loss.

If I came home to find I'd lost my journals, maps, pictures, hunting clothes, guns and gear that have been with me year in and year out, many of them presents, I'd be in a funk for years.

My (belated) sympathies.

-- kypaddler

And to echo others, it's a blessing no one was hurt. My mother lost her mother in a fire when she was just a small child. My father's family lost every single thing they owned when -- the night they moved in to a new house -- it burned to the ground with all their possessions and pets. Ugh.