Family trying to regroup after house fire
Published 8:10 pm Friday, July 18, 2008
By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Brian and Tonia Hoy just moved to the rental house at the end of 95th Avenue over the July 4 weekend from Elizabeth Street in Dowagiac to save money to move to Niles.
Gas prices were killing them commuting to his job at North American Forest Products in Edwardsburg and hers at Rural King in Niles.
Now the family with five young children lost everything to a fire which broke out Thursday morning while Brian slept after working his shift into the wee hours.
He awoke confronted by a wall of flame not long after Tonia left for Niles with three of the children, while two others in pajamas stayed next door at their grandma's, Rose Reynolds, who drives a school bus for Dowagiac Union Schools.
He's just glad to be alive, since this is the second time a fire has turned his life upside down. When he was a kid in Mishawaka, Ind., a call came to school that their home had burned.
"My grandpa's memories went up in flames in that one," he said. "I try not to remember it." In that regard, it could have been much worse."
All five children slept upstairs, which the blaze consumed.
Hoy, who ran for school board in 2007 and again in May 2008 as a write-in, has never confronted a house fire before, but she said it and snakes have been lifelong fears.
"A house fire was my biggest fear in life," Tonia said Friday. "I'm such a fanatic about fire alarms and fire extinguishers. I always make sure everything's unplugged."
"Those smoke detectors saved my life," her husband said. "That's the reason I woke up. If it wasn't for those smoke detectors, I wouldn't be here talking to anybody. I usually don't wake up until about 11. I don't remember anything but running through the door. I've still got flames in my mind, so I'm thankful I woke up and got out and that none of my kids were here inside.
"It could have been when I was at work and they were sleeping upstairs because this went ungodly fast. I think my mother-in-law thought I was crazy because I was swinging my arms and couldn't really speak."
Brian finally found his scorched car keys in the ruins – "glued" to the counter by intense heat.
Yet a package of cigarettes in a kitchen drawer, meant to be burned, survived intact.
So did their wedding rings, "the only thing that survived in the bathroom," Tonia said. Aug. 25 will be their fourth wedding anniversary.
"The only reason my three kids and I had clothes on and I have my purse was because we were on the way to work and daycare," Tonia said. "If the bedroom window had been open, that fire would have gone right in to Brian. We think we lost our cat in the fire."
After a disheartening day of working the phones for help at the table in the yard, which overlooks Little Crooked Lake one way and Round Lake the other, she doesn't see the summery scenery, just smells acrid smoke which symbolizes their devastated lives.
"It's disgusting," she said. "You smell it as soon as you wake up. We had a freezer packed with food. Everybody was complaining when they moved us about how much food we had. We've got seven people! We saved some canned goods, but we're afraid to eat them."
A steady stream of strollers rubbernecking the fire scene makes Brian feel like "sideshow freaks."
"I was in the (downstairs) bedroom, asleep, because I got off (work) at 2:30 a.m.," Brian points out a sooty platform. "I went to bed about 3:30 or 4. I didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. I woke up about 8:30, quarter to 9 and the house was engulfed. Something didn't feel right. I heard a noise go off in my head. The fire alarm was going off. I sat up in bed and it didn't smell right. As soon as I walked right there, the main wall was engulfed in flames. I took off out the door in my boxers. That's all I had."
Tonia had left for Niles with the kids who a few minutes before had been seated on the couch watching Nickelodeon while waiting for her younger sister to arrive.
"I usually leave about 7:20," she said. "I just took them out of the house next door and me and my three left for day care and work. I get a phone call right past the blinking light on Indian Lake. I whipped around."
"When I left I smelled something burning," she realizes now, "but I thought it was lint that got in my hair dryer. I unplugged the TV and thought maybe it was just me."
Sister Lakes Fire Department is just up the road, but, of course, it took firefighters seven minutes to arrive because they mostly come from their homes – not the station.
"It was way past gone in a matter of minutes," Brian said. "My mother-in-law was spraying it with a garden hose, but it was already gone."
Tonia said the suspected cause is a 2-month-old air conditioner purchased at Wal-Mart. "it's not their fault," she said. "We had that storm the night before with thunder and lightning. Lightning struck the ground right next to the house and went through the wiring. The air conditioner had a button on it. It was supposed to shut itself off. It didn't."
"The only thing we had in storage," Tonia said, "is our pictures, our holiday stuff, our dining room table and our outside stuff. Everything else – our clothes, our couch, our beds," gone.
"We need clothes, food, shelter. Me and the kids are up in my mom's room.
Brian's on the couch and my mom's in the spare bedroom. Red Cross gave us $500 for clothes and $175 for food. Salvation Army doesn't do shelter. They can send us to Benton Harbor or South Bend, but right now, the homeless shelters are full. Goodwill can help with clothing, but somebody's got to buy it. We haven't tried any churches yet. A couple of families gave us clothing items for the kids, but no summer clothes. We were just staying here to save up money to move to Niles. We don't do anything in Dowagiac except our church (Calvary Bible), the pharmacy and the pediatrician and we're paying so much for gas, driving constantly. DHS (state Department of Human Services) is doing the best they can. They're trying to replace our food, but funds are tight. A family loses everything and there's nowhere to stay, no one to help people? That's sad."
"We did have a state trooper give us $400 out of his own pocket," she added.
"He said, 'God bless you, the Lord just told me to do it.' "
"That was awesome," Brian said. "So generous."
The Hoys can be contacted at 424-6413.