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Hi everyone,

Just passing on some sad news I saw on another forum (ANZLF - http://www.anzlf.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7313).

Brent Cole and his wife Annette from OLF sponsor Alaska Specialty Woods have lost their home in a house fire. Brent was injured in the fire. There is a funding drive that has been set up to help them recover should any OLF members wish to contribute: https://www.gofundme.com/5vzxk5gk

I don't have any further details about the situation as I do not know the Coles personally. Just thought I'd pass this on.

That is very unfortunate.

While crowd funding is a great idea..... Those of us on here can go buy some tonewood for him. Any chance he might be interested in running a "fire sale" package deal along the lines of what Shane used to do. I would certainly be in.

He may once he's back on his feet. Right now from what I read he is layed up pretty bad.
Sounds like he has quite a road in front of him..

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Very sorry to hear that

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guitarsbygiltzow.com

Oh crap. That's terrible news. I hope Brent is going to be okay as soon as possible and to the rest of the family.

Sorry to hear about this........!! Hope Brent will have a speedy recovery and they get the rest squared away.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Absolutely terrible news. Brent is the most conscientious tonewood dealer I've worked with, and we all know our sponsors set that standard very high.

That's a sorry piece of news.

Yikes! Hoping for a speedy recovery for both health and household.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Heart breaking. Hang in there Brent.

amen on that...

that´s just terrible. hope things get better soon.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Hoping Brent has a speedy, and full, recovery.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Sorry to hear this..

That is a nightmare...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Sorry to hear that...
I hope get well soon for Brent and family also his house and his job

Re: Brent Cole - Alaska Specialty Woods house fire

Quote

Postby Bob Connor » Thu Apr 21, 2016 1:13 pm
Here's an update.

This is an update from my sister KayLee Abbott. Who is there with our parents in seattle!

Feel free to copy/paste and edit as necessary to share other places

Update 4/20/16

Great progress made today and it was wonderful being able to talk to my dad (Brent today). He is looking so much better than even from this morning.

Brent's ventilator was removed early this morning and he was up and walked around the unit. He is doing well and just focused on healing up. He is still in the ICU as it appears the other rooms are full.

It's little baby steps right now starting with keeping food down.

At this point we still aren't sure of the timeline for heading home but we continue to take it one day at a time.

Annette has been amazingly strong through this all. She continues to be a pillar of the family.

Family and friends everywhere are doing so much for our family and we are so grateful for everyone. Thank you for your continued kind words, prayers, gifts, and help.

Regards
Bob, Geelong

http://www.anzlf.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7313&sid=ed662c498fd1fc38c66d0ee30118045f

Saw this on ANZLF. Great news.

Great to hear that he is on the road to recovery.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Hello Everyone,
Many have been wondering whats going on with this Cole Family and Alaska Specialty Woods Inc.
I’m very happy to report that this Cole is still alive. It was a close call.
Here’s the story…
Monday afternoon 4/18 I went to “The Wood Producers task force meeting” to participate with how the Tongass is managed for timber production. I also had intentions for another meeting on the following day with another group to also discuss Tongass management issues.
Anyway went to bed about 10PM monday night.
At aprox. 1 am Annette woke up and woke me stating, "I think there the house is on fire!”. We could see the orange glow coming from the living room/kitchen area coming through the voids above and below the bedroom door. This was a 1981 14x66 mobile home. Both of us in our skivvies, Annette went to the door, I went to the window. Annette felt the door, it was cool and she opened it and crawled on her knees towards the fire to the office. As soon as she cleared the door, the draft from the raging fire in the middle of the house pulled the bedroom door closed behind her. This is less than 10 seconds…as I felt the window to open, she called me, saying she got the office door open. I started that way disoriented and feeling my way in total darkness I was going at first towards the bathroom, felt that door and and moved left towards the bedroom exit and finding the door knob. I Opened it to see the raging fire in the totally engulfed living room and half the kitchen. The noise was like a loud blast furnace with popping and crackling. The smell of burning wood, plastic, various fabrics filled the room. Very hot burning gasses hovered the ceiling, circling down the walls.. I ran the apron 8' and dove left falling through the office doorway that was a high 10-11’ step down into the ASW Office.. Annette pulled me out of the office to the outside back porch.
We quickly moved along the 2’ wide trail outside wall of the burning structure passing the flames shooting out the broken living room windows to the carport at the front end of the house./ drove up to the factory and my son, Ryan’s house to call for help.
EMT’s showed up first. My son and Annette were already putting wet washcloths on my arms and back burns. I was ambulanced to Alicia Roberts medical Clinic in Klawock, 10 miles away and put out and filled with tubes down my nose and throat. I remember feeling all of that. I woke up 1.5 days later at Harbor View ICU burn unit in Seattle. Tubes down my throat and nose remained for about 20 more hours.

Annette filled me in on what was going on, how our daughters started the go fund me thing. How my boys fired up my log loader and the dump truck and 30-40 neighbors and friends showed up to clean up the mess of a burned home and stuff. The fundraising events of a music festival/pie auction and tables at the spring bazaar, and gift certificates from local merchants. In addition church congregations from as far away as Chicago, and as near as Juneau, Sitka and other SE Alaska congregations.

Many many times we have been on the giving end to help ease hardships on our neighbors and friends
The caring and love demonstrated towards my family and I has drawn tears to my eyes every day I have been awake since the fire.

This is a Great place to inject a huge thank you to the 102 folks from all over the world that have reached into their pockets and donated to help us to start our journey to build new memories, however they are able.

So, I was in ICU of Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle for 3 days, then on the 8th floor which is also a burn treatment unit for another 3 days.
We stayed at my daughters families home for the next 5 days changing wound dressing daily. Friday 4/29, the only and last Dr. visit since release from the hospital. I have a bunch of new skin.. the Doc said I’m virtually healed, with very little concern for infection on the 2 areas that were deep 3rd degree burns on my back and hip.Those are small enough to be dealt with the special sauce and covered with a peal and sick bandage.

The home that Annette kept immaculately clean, organized and comfortable, and ASW Office was totally destroyed.
Also the old ASW dry-room/shipping room that was now the pantry for 4 housholds. All the canned fish and meats and cases of empty jars ready for the next harvest to start in about 6 weeks, the food processing equipment, canners, heavy duty meat grinder, sausage meat mixer, sausage stuffers, heavy duty vacuum sealers and bags. We were well setup for our semi-sumsistance lifestyle.Lost our tsunami emergency scoot tote. the camping gear..

The ASW Office was part of our home. The loss of that is really big. The files, the office equipment.., data and pictures. Videos of projects for the new webpage..

What’s next….
We have 650 sq ft upstairs in the factory that was planned for Office/break-room/conference room.
We need to generate Thousands of $’s to purchase the noise insulation and sealing materials and other to make that area an office/efficiancy apartment that we will call home for as long as necessary.

We aren’t going to be able to anything, as in purchase materials, without sales revenue.
My plea now is for all the customers that have purchased our fine products in the past and present, to come to us again many times for our sitka, cedar and alder tone wood products. Tell and encourage your friends and colleages about us.
We have got have sales to even stay in biz.We have invested the money and time, setting up to be the premier custom soundboard producer of Sitka Spruce from this region of the world. WE have material inventory and a protected log yard to store, a production/warehouse facility that gives us the ability to produce 1000 guitar tops per week now. And with a small investment of equipment, could push that production capability to over 3000 tops per week.
The biggest feather in our hat, is our 100% salvage sourced old growth material. The finest Sitka Spruce in the World.

Brent, so glad you are on the mend. I know it will take several years to get this behind you and I wish you all the best.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"