Christmas Fire

December 20th 2011.
A day that will be burned into my memory forever.
I was just geting home from a 12 hour shift up at Primary Children's. Jarom had to work that night so he had dropped off Marlie at his brother's house. I was picking her when Jarom called and told me our house was on fire. The drive home was both the longest and quickest drive of my life. I spoke to my next door neighbor on the way home and she told me that it was bad. I also learned that our dog Booker hadn't made it. He had been in his kennel in the kitchen. That has been the hardest part of all of this for sure. Booker was a member of our family and we will miss him so much!

Our next door neighbors Andy and AmyLyn saw the smoke when they were pulling into their driveway. Andy ran around the back and saw the flames and yelled to AmyLyn to call 911. They then proceeded to rally the neighbors and pour buckets of water on the fire. The fire department have assured us that they flat out saved our home. We will never be able to thank them enough. They have always been there when we have needed them and they continue to be there for us now. We love them!

We aren't 100% sure what caused the fire yet. They are still investigating but we are pretty sure it was due to a candle that was left burning. We are incredibly lucky that the fire wasn't worse. It truly is a miracle that our Christmas tree didn't catch fire. If it had we may have lost the house.

It is going to be a long journey from here on out. The house isn't liveable so we will be staying with my parents. We are so grateful to have so much family around to support us. It sounds like the whole downstairs will have to be completely gutted. The upstairs will probably need all new sheet rock and cabinets in the bathrooms. We are still in the very beginning processes so we won't know anything for sure. The disaster company pretty much takes care of everything and have been phenomenal so far. They cleaned a few  bags of clothes for us and even delivered them up to my parents house. We are unsure if any of our clothing is salvagable. They had to clean them 3 times and they still smell faintly of smoke and strongly of chemicals. We may have to start over there.

I am trying to see all the silver linings in this. I think Steff is most excited to take me on a shopping spree. I am excited to get all new carpet and paint. It should be fun to redecorate the house too. It's almost like I'm building a new house and I get to choose everything that goes in it. Thankfully we have good home owner's insurance that will cover most of everything.

We are so blessed that no one was home or hurt in any of this. We are mourning the loss of Booker but are so grateful the rest of our little family is ok.

I have been so inpired by all of the incredibly generous people who have offered to help. We are being well taken care of. I have seen so may examples of selflessness and service over these last few days. They are amazing examples of our Savior.


The Lehi Fire Department was wondeful. They went above and beyond.





Chief Howard was especially great.

  One of the Lehi firefighters approached us and told us that he is a tracker and owns about 15 dogs of his own. He expressed his sympathies for the loss of our dog and asked us if we would like to meet him in the morning and he would take us out to his land to bury him. This complete stranger, after a long graveyard shift, met us at our home, helped us load Booker into his truck, and drove us all the way out to cedar fort. He then helped us dig through the frozen solid ground. He told us to come over soon and play with is new puppies and if we needed anything at all to give him a call. I am still almost moved to tears just thinking about this amazing man. What an incredible act of service for a complete stranger. Jarom and I can never express how much this meant to us. He will forever be a reminder of the kind of person I want to be.


 We will forever be grateful for the fireman who helped us bury Booker.



This is all the debris from the bookshelf. Lots of books but mostly Jarom's surfer magazines.

It was hot enough to melt the blinds right off the window but miraculously our real Christmas tree didn't catch fire.



Unfortunately it's actually a lot worse than these pictures make it look.




Again, this looks better than it really is.

 We feel so blessed. Things could have been a lot worse. We are thanking our Father in Heaven for all the little miracles on our behalf. This is also giving us the opportunity to focus more on our Savior this time of year than ever. It truly will be a wonderful Christmas. We love all of you so much! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We will try to keep you updated as best we can throughout this process. But you know my blogging skills, or lack of them.