To the friends of A Baseline View.

This is the most difficult thing that I have ever written on my website. But I felt like I needed to let everyone know what was going on.

Many of you who are close to me and know me from Facebook also know that this past Thursday night my mobile home caught fire and burned to the ground.

I came home while it was on fire but I wasn't able to save anything, including my best friend and buddy, my dog “Raider.”

I lost my home and my truck.

Because of the age of my mobile home I had no insurance on it and my truck only had liability insurance because I never drove it long distances.

I thought I would share with you what happened on that night.

I was on my way home from a ballgame in Centralia. I did my usual stop to use the internet at McDonald's.

After getting the scores posted, laying out my pages and typing in my box scores I headed home.

Earlier in the day I was messing around with an old laptop I had bought used last fall and had it on a charger in my kitchen.

After messing with it for a while I got it to work but the battery wasn't allowing it to stay on when I unplugged it.

It was a new battery that I had also bought last fall online along with a new cord/charger.

Thursday I decided to mess with it so when I left for the game I plugged it in to the wall socket without a surge protector.

When I was coming home I could see down my road I saw an orange light in the distance.

At first I thought it was a wreck on I-64 because to get to my place I had to cross over the interstate.

But when I got closer I realized the fire was further up the road.

When I crossed over the bridge I realized my worst nightmare had happened.

The end of my mobile home where the kitchen was located was on fire.

I had only one thought and that was to save Raider.

I pulled into my driveway and stopped about 100 feet away and ran to my front porch.

I opened up the front door and the smoke was thick as I was screaming for Raider to come out.

But he didn't.

At this moment I ran and fell off of my porch but I made it around to my back door and called for him again.

When I got my senses together I dialed 9-1-1 and told the operator where I was located.

I then ran around the front of my house and shut off the propane tank.

But when I went to go back to move my car I discovered that I had somehow lost my keys.

So I ran to my car and grabbed my laptop and my camera and I ran out some 200 feet back to the road.

I turned around and watched everything I owned burn.

By the time the fire trucks arrived there was nothing that could be saved.

My fire proof safe had a lot of important things in it that survived, including a car key that was a duplicate but not a transponder key.

A car dealership the next day made me a new one for my Buick.

I'm trying to stay positive about everything. But I miss my boy “Raider.” He was a one of a kind friend.

He was Daddy's Boy, that was for sure. I got him from a lady name Debi Vincent who runs Mama V's Pet Sanctuary in Mt. Vernon.

I got him in October of 2014 when I also was having some issues.

I rescued him, but the fact was he rescued me.

I have at least a hundred funny stories about him.

He was by best buddy and I will forever miss him.

I don't know what to say to people now or how to thank the ones who have helped me so much in the past few days with thoughts and prayers.

I'm thankful beyond words what my friends, and even strangers, have done the past few days.

Some people have already donated to my Go Fund Me account on Facebook.

I'm in the process of making some very important life decisions.

But there is one thing that is certain and you can etch it into stone.

I will be doing A Baseline View.com until the day I can no longer do it mentally, physically or when I am dead and gone.

I hope this letter to you folks doesn't offend anyone, it is just something I felt I needed to say to the many fans, coaches and players who frequent my website and may not have known about my situation.

Thank you. I hope to see you at a gym soon.

I'm not going to miss a night of my favorite time of the year.

 

Thank you

Jack Bullock