Note from the author:
Today, January 8th 2013, marks the 20th anniversary of my house burning down, so I decided to write a comic about it. It was a terrible thing and I've found the best way to deal with terrible things is to tell funny stories about them later.

My dad still had a copy of the front page of our local newspaper, and I've scanned it and pasted it below for anyone who is curious. Also, the newspaper is dated January 9th but the house actually burned down on the 8th (they went to print a day later), and even though the paper states that my sister called the police it was actually my mom.

A lot of people are asking: my mom made it out okay, and she ended up rebuilding her teddy bear business over the next few years.