Bummer Russ, I got burned out of an apartment building once, but that was wake up to smoke and no time to worry.
For that "in the pit of your stomach" feeling it was a tree. A 100 footer close to the house that ants had hollowed out. One windy night a friend was leaving late and came back in to tell me the tree had made a loud "crack" sound.
Couple weeks later I went to a friends up in Denver, PA. My buddy up the road saw the tree down and called a friend in Jersey to see if I was there. The guy in Jersey called Denver but I had left. The girl in Denver knew I was stopping in Blue Ball, PA, so she called there. I got the message "the tree went down". That's all, just "the tree went down". I'm still 60 miles, over rural roads, from home on a rainy night, but I made it home "quickly".
The tree not only missed the house, it missed damn near everything. Took the wires down, broke the bulb but not the globe on the post light and drove branches two feet into the ground a few inches either side of my new driveway. Virtually no freakin damage.
I did screw up though, in that I felt sorry for the utility guys putting the wires back up so I got them a pizza. Had to wait an extra half hour for my power to get back on while they ate.
