Eco-Strip customer Lisa Rock and her Speedheater™ Cobra survived a restorer’s worst nightmare: a house fire. Her experience is quite a story:
“Three months ago I lost my historic home to a fire. (Lisa was restoring it to be a large B & B.) The fire started in a vacant home next to mine. My home was deemed a total loss and I was told not to try to salvage anything. It wouldn’t be any good. After all, there were 3 fire truck snorkels throwing water on my home with hundreds of thousands of gallons of water damaging and drenching everything that wasn’t already burned. Well, I almost believed the professionals, but my preservation side of me had to try to salvage what I could.
So, the process began. I tried to go in and get things but when it came to the basement, it was over 4 feet deep in water and remained that way for a couple of days. Therefore, I focused on other areas of the home first. Mind you, it was winter. Almost everything in the home became frozen in place. I had to wait for the weather to warm up to begin doing salvage. It was two and a half months before I got back to the basement.
While going through the fire damaged debris, I ran across my Speedheater Cobra™. My heart sank. It’s one of my favorite tools. I looked at it thinking it’s no good but something kept telling me to clean it up and try it. After a thorough cleaning and letting it dry really well, I fired it up. Low and behold, it popped and crackled just a bit and next thing, it was working like brand new.
Since then my dear friend, Brenda Reilly, from Museum Hill Historic District has been using it almost daily, and it’s working perfectly.
The quality and durability of this tool is above and beyond. Who would have thought a tool that was completely submerged under water for days, frozen in place and covered with debris and blown-in insulation would clean up and work perfectly again? It gets a 5 star plus rating from me. I can’t be more pleased and proud to own a Cobra Speedheater™.”
Lisa Rock
Remax Professionals and Historic Property Specialist
St Joseph, MO
