This article was published in the Tillsonburg News on pg 4 col 3 on the 23 Dec 2005 and obviously summarizes our comments.

FIRE !!! FIRE !!! FIRE !!! - these singularly alarming words were uttered by my dear wife at 11:40 a.m. on 6th Oct 2005 - a day as they say, for us, that "will live in infamy." If you can just imagine that you walked out the door of your home and that monster known to us as "FIRE" invaded your home and held you hostage outside that friendly door which daily welcomed you. NOW you are left with nothing more than what you carry on your person - "FIRE" holds you for ransom - the price is, "all your family possessions." And believe that this condition shall remain until a lot of actions are taken to return your possessions to you; FRIGHTENING !!!???, I truly hope it is.

Fortunately (if you have good insurance coverage [from a good company] and have taken proper fire safety precautions) a literal army of very professional workers will descend on your property. They will lift you above the absolute turmoil of the recovery actions conducted on your behalf and gentle bring you back to reality in a few short weeks - ONLY when their work is done.

From the ADT alarm folks - notifying the local Fire Hall and other proper authorities to the Fire Chief arriving on site seconds after Kathy (my wife) alerted us - setting in our Summer Kitchen, just outside our rear door. And the excellent timely actions of the Fire Team to prevent total destruction of our home. To our insurance agent (Co-Operators) arriving on scene within minutes and standing ready throughout to offer assistance and advice. To the adjuster assuring us that we would be accommodated and fed until we could return to our home and providing sufficient funds immediately to carry us through until the ransom had been fully paid.

To a wonderful team of people from the Service Master Co appearing on site to begin repairs before day one hade expired. And these super folks (along with the team of contractors that they employ) working daily until they had returned every aspect of the home we so love to as closely as humanly possible, its pre-fire condition. I cannot give them enough praise - not only was the work done very professionally, it was done with compassion and understanding of our situation -- THEY REALLY CARE!!!

To the "day of return", on 26 Nov 2005 - you will recall it was our first serious snowfall - but Kathy and I experienced the most immense feeling of gratitude to so many wonderful people. For that monster known to us as "FIRE", had NOW been evicted and our ransom paid in full. THANKS TO A SUPERIOR TEAM in every way - TILLSONBURG, NOW HEAR THIS and STAND PROUD. No doubt many folks were involved that we were not even aware of, please also accept our sincere appreciation.

LASTLY - if all of this and our final actions here, only serve to motivate one family to contact our FIRE CHIEF and update their FIRE ACTION PLAN - and this saves just one life, you will have "made our day".

Thank you for taking the time to read this - Fred Cook 519-842-9433