I feel for the neighbors as well as the family who now has to deal with their quirky dad's mess. At first I jokingly thought "Seems like a good time for mysterious and well contained fire", but seriously, maybe the family could donate the house to be burned as a training exercise for our local firefighters? I've seen this done over the years in other areas when they have a structure with too many problems. There may be a significant tax benefit for the family and then they could sell the land. The house is most likely a tear down anyway so there could be more monetary benefit to sell the build-able land.

Tough Situation - I’m sure you were joking about the house burning down as a strategy for its removal or elimination because Firefighters responding with urgency using red lights/siren and then rushing into the building to look for victims while simultaneously working to suppress the Fire is both dangerous work and unpredictable at times.

In regards to a training exercise:

Due to environmental, practical, safety and liability issues associated with live fire burns and the required “softening” of these types of structures located in residential neighborhoods, we no longer conduct live fire burns in the community but rather use specialized, reusable training simulators near the Dumbarton Bridge and well away from populated areas.

Harold Schapelhouman, Fire Chief
Menlo Park Fire Protection District

"I’m sure you were joking about the house burning down"
Of course. I even when back and added the work "Jokingly" to hopefully remove any doubt:
"At first I jokingly thought..."
You may have missed that part, or maybe that thought was on everyone's mind so best to quell that thought before someone thinks it's actually a good idea(!)

Thanks for info on the training. Make sense, and aren't there always liability concerns about everything these days...Thanks lawyers ;)

You firefighters do great work, stay safe and THANK YOU!