OVER THE EDGE March 14, 2007

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A horrific view of the charred inside of the Morgan family’s home.

Tragic Fire Devastates Family

STEPHANIE MorGAN
CONTRIBUTOR

When fire pours out of the roof
of 2 home it looks worsé than it
does on television. For one thing,
the fire is quickly going through a
home that has actually been lived
in. There’s no faux staging here,
nothing to stop it being anything
but a stark tragedy.

Blackened ash and the smell
of fire retardant are the fare of
nightmares for most people — stor-
ies. that are used prolifically in
cautionary tales and television to
keep children from playing with
matches. When that story becomes

. areality it feels much different.

When the dryer in my parent’s
home caught on fire in the evening
of February 12.my parents weren’t
home — they were in Ontario be-
cause of a funeral. My roommate,
James, was housesitting while
they were gone, and he managed
to get himself and the dog out be-
fore the fire fully took over. He
tried three times to go back in and
get the cats, but finally had to give
up because of the smoke.

By the time I got there, the fire
department was just trying to keep
the fire contained. They were try-

ing to make sure nothing else in
the area started on fire, and that
this fire didn’t cause any damage
to other buildings in the area. In
the end the only thing that burned
down was that one trailer.

Objectively, the bonfire that
had been my teenage home was
beautiful — lit up against the
clear sky, with the red and white
flashing emergency lights of the
fire department, it looked a little
like an outdoor Christmas scene.
However, even that eventually
was tampered down when the fire
department got complete control
of the site.

The next morning the site was
handed off to me, filled with gut-
ted remains and broken ashes.
There was, remarkably, a good
amount that could be saved. Fam-
ily treasures that might mean little
to someone else meant wonders to
my parents who were still in Ni-
agara Falls. My mother’s rosery
was found — something that had
belonged to her grandmother. A
wedding band was also found
hidding in some debris, perfectly
safe. Ironically, a candle also sur-
vived the blaze completely intact
without even lighting the wick.

In the end, though, the house

was devastated. Chemicals hung
in the air, leaving those few of
us attempting to recover what we
could from the fire gagging, and
there were small spots still smol-
dering forcing us to be even more
careful. The water couldn’t be
turned off, so the hot water tank
gushed sprays of water into the
already unstable bathroom floor.
To make matters worse, gawkers
drove by to stare at the remains
unapologetically.

What had taken only a few
hours to destroy was going to
take days to even begin to scav-
enge. >

done in a tediously slow fashion
because of the unstable condition |
of the floors and lack of walls in
most places. Soot covered many

surfaces, and things had been |

moved around. Melted plastics
covered every surface resulting
in many questions; morbid curi-
osities finally left most of us with
a sense of unease and confusion
at the end of day one. Attempts
continued as we found and saved
more and more heirlooms that
may or may not be usable due to
extreme smoke damage.
However, out of this ad-

Much of the work had be to be

STEPHANIE MorGan, CONTRIBUTER

versity we finally managed to
see some hope. The community
surged forward with donations, al-
most overnight, with all the media
coverage we'd received. One fam-
ily donated almost an entire house
worth of furniture, allowing my
parents to move into an apartment
and start over. A hall and DJ ser-

vices were offered free of charge
by the Kinsmen for a benefit event
on March 10. Finally, basic home
essentials were offered by many

people in the community. The

home may not have been insured,
but people made sure that things
were covered. ~