FIRE 7/11

What started out as a normal day turned quickly into a life changing event.  My sister had a doctor appointment and had asked if I could watch the kids while she ran to the doctor.  So I met her in Sandy.  As we were pulling out, Lexi got a call that she needed to get home fast cause their house was on fire.  By the time she got to the house there was already police that had blocked off the street and 3 fire trucks.
All she could do is just watch as the fireman put out the fire.  Luckily the neighbors saw it and had called the fire department.



Good thing is that no one was home at the time of the fire and she didn't have the kids, so they didn't have to see their house go up in flames.  They were traumatized at just seeing the pictures and hearing that they didn't have a home anymore to go home to.
Lexi didn't call us until after the fire was out as she had too many things going on in her head.  Luckily, my friend KO was at home and ran over to watch the kids and my mom and I drove down to see the house and see how Lexi was doing.

 We were surprised when we drove up to the house.  All the windows had been blown out or the firemen had knocked them out.  The outside in the back of the house looked charred.  We were able to go into the house.  You could feel the heat of the fire still, but the fireman had cleared the house.  The fire had started in the kitchen, due to some faulty wiring behind the stove. This was their kitchen.

 This was the front room.  The ceiling had been knocked down to make sure all the hot spots were put out, but you could barely recognize where some of their was.  There was a Minnie Mouse play kitchen sitting right next to the TV, but as you can see in the picture, totally gone, you wouldn't even know it was there.  It looks really messy cause of the ceiling and the firemen were just throwing things out of the way.

 There were their wedding pictures and family photos on the wall hanging next to the TV.  Pictures were totally gone, but the frames were still on the wall.  One fireman had even put on picture frame that you could still make out the faces in the picture on the remnants of their piano in the living room.








The upstairs was the worst, kitchen, bathroom, the girl's room, were hit the hardest, then the living room and the master bedroom.  Downstairs was mostly just smoke and water damage.  House is a complete loss.

The kids only saw pictures on our phones.  W, took our phones and walked around Gma's house taking pictures of better things, saying he didn't want to see the burnt house.  J, cried pretty hard as he is old enough to really understand what had happened. A and I couldn't really care at the moment.

My sister and fam moved into a hotel for a few weeks and spent a lot of time at Gma's before being moved into a town home for at least a few months as they look for a new place to live.  The realization for the kids is still sinking in as they all internalize the situation within.  A promised to keep her room clean if they could go back to the house to get some of her toys.  We were able to salvage a few toys, but not many so they really treasure what they have.

Fast forward a few weeks, Lexi needed to swing by the house to get something and she had all the kids.  The boys said no way they didn't want to see the house.  Even though the house has been gutted and they are starting to rebuild it.  A still wanted to see it, but once she saw it and walked inside she totally fell apart as the realization that is wasn't her house.  Maybe once the house is totally done they can go back and see that the house is all better might help them, but currently none of the kids ever want to go back to that house again.  W, is somewhat obsessed about turning off the oven and stove now and thoughts of the burning house still is in the back of his mind.  Hopefully, the younger kids won't remember this event.

AND we thought this weekend was going to filled with FUN and ADVENTURE!  Well it was, just not the fun and adventurous we were thinking............