Don,
I don't mind you posting it here. MY family and I are safe, smoke has been a way of lie for a while though. Only one person lost their life to this fire (she refused to leave her mountain cabin) and there was only a single firefighter injured. 259 structures were lost and the firea area was nearly 88,000 acres. The Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs did not get as big but it destroyed close to 360 homes I think. It got into a more suburban type neighborhood opposed to the rural mountain neighborhoods in the High Park fire near Fort Collins/Loveland.
Poolboy, it was not Bill's shop. It was the shop that does all of the body & paint work for Bill's shop though. I actually introduced Bill to this shop a number of years ago when he finished the body and paint on the TR6 that I used to have. Bill and his wife were evacuated (twice actually) from their home because of the fire but it didn't actually reach his house.
My TR8 was in the first stage of primer on its way to a complete re-paint. All of the rust had been repaired, all of the accident damage had been repaired. The fire burned for 22 days (started June 9th) and the best estimate is that my car, and the shop that it was in, was taken out on the second day. Fifteen miles from where the fire started, that is how fast that fire moved. The fire moved down the south side of the canyon where this shop was located missing the shop, got to the bottom of the canyon, turned around and came back up the canyon, which is when the shop, and my TR8FHC, were taken out. The first pictures I have of the remains were taken by a volunteer firefighter who was doing damage assessments on June 19th. The fire crews achieved full containment on July 1st. The area was opened back up July 2nd and I was able to retrieve the remains of my TR8FHC on July fourth.
Driving up the canyon is a surreal experience. Many areas look completely untouched as the trees are still full of green leaves, until you look below them and the ground is completely scorched. On the opposite side of the canyon the entire hillside will be scorched, trees and all. It bounces around like that quite a bit. The shop was located about 60 feet from the owners house, the firefighters protected the house but not the shop. Now, 28 days later, our rainy season has arrived (a little over a month later than usual actually) and flashfloods are ravaging the fire area as the scorched vegetation and burned off under growth can't hold back the rainfall and the ground can't soak it up either, evidently scorched vegetation creates a fairly water resistant surface.
There was another car in the shop along with mine when the whole thing went up. A 1954 Kurtis 500S, only 34 of those ever made from two seperate runs. This one was from the second run.
It must have been a slow and long burn, the shop collapsed and crushed my car and continued to burn around it. Most of the aluminum melted completely away, wheels, tires, transmission bell housing, transmission tail housing, the front of the engine and the belt drive accessories completely melted away as well. The car was sitting on jackstands and the subframe got so hot it drooped around the jack stands. Nothing is salvagable from the car, absolutely nothing that was in the shop with it.
The shop as photographed by the firefighter onJune 19th.
My TR8FHC, yes, it was a FHC.
The shop again...
The shop with a path cleared to drag my TR8FHC out of the rubble.
Nice to have a friend with his own private roll back truck, perfect for extricating my TR8.
Here is an example of the subframe deforming from the heat. This is where the jack stand used to be.
This was a running engine with freshly rebuilt carbs.
I think I'm going to take a break from British cars for a while. Time to pursue some other automotive predilections.
Hey there Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
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