Urban renewal, Texas style.....

Woke up this morning and turned my cell phones on...turned out the local firemen had a busy night. Two of my old buildings got hit by arsonists last night, probably to distract the law enforcement from goings on elsewhere in town.

What was once a poorly built three bedroom house is now burned completely to the ground....all ash and bricks and tin roof now. Looks like it burned real fast, like someone went in with gasoline....There is grass ten feet away not touched, but the fire is still HOT after 12 hours...

Anyone have experience cleaning up a mess like this? I am thinking haul off the metal, take my loader and push the rest into a pile. Maybe separate out the bricks, would they be useful for anything after a fire?? If the city will let me I will dig a hole and bury the rest....The firemen pulled the tin off while it burned, and let the rest burn completely. They did me a huge favor....

Don't know whether to offer a reward for the capture of the varmint responsible or a reward to him for saving me a LOT of dump fees.

before you do anything, the fire marshal got to clear it, since you said it was arson. Also, if insured, it will make a difference what the declaration (arson/ unknown) will be, also relevant in any law enforcement investigations. So do your homework. Beware of lazy lazy marshals, fire departments (I am a volunteer myself), police, and or sheriff's office when it comes to determination of fire/ cause of fire.....and insist on what you think needs to be done, especially since you lost 2 buildings. Wait with any cleanup until fully settled with the insurance company, check accepted and cashed. Take pics now so nothing walks off.
Bricks can be recycled, sud can be removed with sud remover for bricks. Cleaned (without concrete/mortar) bricks can bring between 10 and 25 cents, sometimes more, up to dollar depending on age, glaze, origin; to repair old buildings, make new look old or simply bricks to the thrifty person. Get oriented locally. Check bricks, ever so many had a name (Mangum Brick, ACME, etc) stamped into the larger top or bottom of the bricks. May have to remove mortar to view.
digging whole, if permitted is ok, depending what you want to do with that spot int eh future.
if enough bricks and metal is there, offer it to the person that cleans it up for you in exchange for removing the rest. (get written contract).
Speaking from experience, Ralph in Oklahoma.

Years ago we had an empty house torched,you could see the gas trail from the street to the house. Dad told the FD to let it burn and after they were sure there was no insurance on it they did. We just pushed the remains in the basement for a week till it was all ash.

Buildings were uninsurable due to their condition..No utilities were hooked up, and there were no lightning strikes last night so it has to be arson.....

Thanks for the info, I think I will be the cleanup guy....I will talk with the fire marshall tomorrow after he gets some sleep....He had a bunch of calls and was up for almost three days when he went home this AM...

Anything major happen in town that night.??