{"id":50219,"date":"2021-03-08T10:00:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=50219"},"modified":"2024-06-26T16:59:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T23:59:18","slug":"a-saxophone-house-fire-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2021\/a-saxophone-house-fire-survivor\/","title":{"rendered":"A saxophone house fire survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever wonder what happens to your saxophone if it gets caught in a house fire? Well wonder no more. I have photographic evidence of what a saxophone looks like after its case is exposed to the 600+ degrees Fahrenheit of the average house fire 1<\/sup><\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"house<\/a>
This is what my student and her family saw when the got out the front door of the their apartment complex. They lived on the top floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 1:30 in the morning of February 14, my student and her family were woken up by the smoke alarm in their third floor apartment. A neighbour was also yelling: Fire! Fire! Fire!<\/p>\n

They quickly grabbed 3 of their 4 pets\u2014yes, sadly, one of their 3 cats hid on them and died in the fire\u2014their cell phones, and evacuated the building in their PJs.<\/p>\n

At the time of writing the official cause of the fire has not been release yet, but it is thought to have started on the first floor and travelled up the outside wall and into the roof. When my friends escaped from their top floor apartment, the roof was already fully engulfed in flames.<\/p>\n

Yes, it spread incredibly fast, but remarkably no person died or was injured. Sadly though, 200 people are now looking for new homes since the apartment building is a total loss. (Nope, the sprinkler system did not go off. Why? Like I said, the official report has not been released yet.)<\/p>\n

The entire top (third floor) of the building sustained the most damage, and to the best of my knowledge most of the units suffered nearly 100% loss of their contents.<\/p>\n

A couple of days ago my student and her family were allowed up into the hallway of the third floor and could tell the salvage crew where to look for items. Although 99.9% of their stuff was gone, a few things survived unscathed, and some things were very scorched. <\/p>\n

What does a saxophone look like after a house fire?<\/h3>\n

Which brings us to my student’s saxophone. She had been renting a Gemeinhardt tenor from Matterhorn Music. Well just look at it now…<\/p>\n

\"Gemeinhardt<\/a>
This is what my student’s Gemeinhardt GST600-LQ tenor looks like post inferno. Good thing it was in its case.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The horn had been in its GL Cases ABS Tenor Case. When my student got her horn new from Matterhorn a couple of years ago, this was the standard case all Gemeinhardt student saxophones came in. <\/p>\n

\"GL<\/a>
Source: kesslerandsons.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The case was basically melted, so my student didn’t really think the horn was going to resemble anything saxophone-like. She was surprised when it was still more or less intact<\/em>\u2014at least compared to the case.<\/p>\n

When I saw it the day she got it, it was pretty much black all over. They day after, when I took these photos, my student had cleaned most of the soot off, but had left the burned crusties on. It adds character, don’t you think. \ud83d\ude09 <\/p>\n

\"Gemeinhardt<\/a>
You can see some of the soot still where it was hard to clean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gemeinhardt<\/a>
I definitely think this adds character to the horn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the photos it is easy to see how the horn was sitting in its case, and in which direction the case was sitting. You can also see how the neck was placed in its storage compartment within the case. <\/p>\n

\"Gemeinhardt<\/a>
The upper octave key is missing. It was obviously left behind in the apartment when the horn was taken out of its case.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notice how the solder has completely been burned off and the octave key saddle is missing. The low C key guard suffered the same fate.<\/p>\n