Situation: friend's house burned to ground. coin collection was in house. a lot of silver coins. None have been located...yet. sterling silver melts at 1645 degrees F (ergo, 90% silver would melt at approx the same temp). this fire raged for more than 2 hours, which could produce temps in the 1600-1700 degree range. So, there is a chance the coins melted and settled. I have access to a metal detector, and have a general idea of where the coins were located. Anyone ever been down this road?
Why I keep my coins in fireproof safes. I know that there's still a chance of this happening, but it greatly reduces it.
This happened to my friend's father and the "certified cleanup crew" walked off with several pieces of jewelry and coins from a garage fire (why do people insist the garage is safer when we store gallons of fuel and chemicals!?!?!?). Some melted, some not. Fortunately it was reported pretty much immediately and a local pawn shop had them dead to rights. All was recovered, and arrests were made - but what a scare. Make sure people you trust are on the ground. Document as much as you can for the insurance and police, and go in as soon as it is deemed safe. Supervise anyone in the area.
Status Report #1: Spent a few hours at fire house Saturday. no way to get to area of house where coins were located. entire house was 3 feet deep in wet ash, debris, garbage....with all kinds of hazards lurking everywhere. Most irritating was the ambient fiberglass from the insulation. It was everywhere, and every step through the 3 feet of sh** put fibers into the air. I've been itching and scratching for a couple days. Did recover 40 or so sterling cups. Cups were in a cabinet which was badly charred on the exterior, but did not burn. Cups would have been very hot, but nowhere near melting temp. cabinet was saturated with water. so these cups got an intense steam bath. lots of white and black stains. applied some silver polish to one of them..and it looked good as new.
That's a nice "good news" update from a terrible situation. I hope you see more, and I hope all can get back to normal for the family.
Get a $10 disposable hazmat suit. Worked great for me while belly crawling through blown insulation in an attic to run wire.
I... had no idea you could get a disposable hazmat suit for that kind of money! I can remember all sorts of situations where that would've been just the thing. Really hope I don't need one while it's 100 degrees and humid here, though -- especially not for going into an attic.
The store near me contracts with the mines. When a box is damaged the mine refuses shipment, and the store can break open the box for individual sale. I probably got a better quality one than the one I linked for individual sale for my $10 and tax.
