On Wednesday, a huge chunk of ground under a home in Whitney, Tex. fell into a lake, leaving the home, valued at over $700,000, teetering on the edge of a cliff.
The owners of the 4,000-square-foot villa, Rob Webb and his wife, decided to burn it down. Local news station WFAA-TV streamed aerial footage of the burning on live TV.
Screenshots of the controlled burn below:
A big chunk of the house fell into the lake:
There were 16 firefighters on hand to watch the fire.
The owners of the home watched the fire from Florida, according to WFAA. "It isn't until you see the deck that you used to sit on to look at the lake ... it's gone," one of the owners said in an interview.
"I wanted to leave it to my grandchildren," they added. "It's a big hit."
The house on Lake Whitney has been unoccupied since the owners abandoned it two weeks ago. It was declared unsafe for habitation about a year ago, according to WFAA-TV, after a crack was discovered in the cliff beneath the home.
Roughly a fifth of the home collapsed into the lake prior to the fire. Here's what it looked like ahead of the fire.
The luxury vacation home was built in 2008 and the Webbs purchased it in 2012 with their retirement savings, according to WFAA-TV. At the time, it was far away from the bluff and presumably safe. Mark Wilson, the chief deputy for the Hill County Sheriff’s Department, told Reuters that “there is just a lot of the bluff that gave way.”
Roughly 150 feet of land has eroded since February, and despite no longer living on the property, the owners are tasked with cleaning up the rubble. Webb told WFAA-TV that he and his wife did purchase home insurance, but that their plan does not cover "earth movement." It is unknown at this time how much the demolition will cost.
After consulting with demolition experts and the U.S. Army Corps Engineers, the owners burned down the house, and will move the debris to stable land before having crews remove the slab foundation, according to the AP.
Here's how close the home was to the edge:.jpg)
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