Upper Valley Family Receives 'Overwhelming' Support After House Fire

On Friday, a fire burned a significant portion of one Talkeetna family’s home.  Nobody was injured in the fire, and one member of the family says that support from the community has been a great help in a difficult time.  KTNA’s Phillip Manning has this story:

Less than a week before Christmas, the Evans family is recovering from a fire at their home near Mile 6 of the Talkeetna Spur Road.  Laurie Evans says she arrived home from work on Friday afternoon and saw the house in flames.  Her daughter 21-year-old Ashli, was home when the fire started, and had already called 911.  Laurie Evans says that Ashley was home by herself when she noticed smoke.

“She covered her face with a wet rag and went into her bedroom to try to figure out where the smoke was coming from.  It was coming from the bed, so she threw the blankets off of it.  And, the bed just burst into flames.”

Laurie Evans says one possible cause for the fire is an electric blanket on Ashli’s bed.  She says that her daughter lost many possessions when the fire spread in her room.

“She had just come back from being overseas for three months…so she had everything right there in her room, everything she brought back…”

The fire was extinguished, and all members of the family, including pets, are safe.  Almost immediately, Laurie Evans says area residents started contacting her to offer help.

“The community support, to this point, has been completely overwhelming.  I’m so humbled by how much everybody has already done.”

Laurie says that the family received at least ten offers of places to stay during the holidays.  In addition, Upper Valley residents have found as many other ways as they can to help.

“People have been bringing us food; they’re washing our clothes. They took our pets; they’re calling every day to see if they can help. They’ve helped us move stuff out of our house.”

The Evans family’s plan of sitting around the Christmas tree in their home has had to change, but, thanks to a friend, their temporary home will still have some holiday cheer.

“We even had a friend that, yesterday, called and said, ‘I’m coming over tomorrow.  I’m bringing a Christmas tree; I’m going to put it up and decorate it.  When it’s all done, I’ll take it down.'”

Laurie Evans gives a lot of credit to the Talkeetna Fire Department for their quick response.  She says they also took time to make sure that items with sentimental value were saved.

“They went inside and immediately started clearing what looked like important items out of the part that was burning and moved them to the other end of the house.  I can’t possibly thank them enough.  They saved some things that–it’s bad enough to lose what we’ve lost, but they really got in there and grabbed some things that had a lot of meaning to us.”

Laurie Evans says that Monday was filled by calls with insurance companies and others as they begin the process of finding a permanent place to live once again.