A Tough Recovery From a House Fire

Written by Grace Stanziola

Freshman Libby Anderson’s life is just beginning to return to normal.

Libby’s house burned down New Year’s Day of 2011. It took almost a full year for her to be able to live in her own house again.

That year was grueling.

The initial shock of the fire was bad. The whole family was in the house apart from Libby. She went to her best friend Chase Hubler’s house for a New Year’s party and sleepover.

“That morning, Chase’s mom came in and told me that I needed to call my mom and that she was sorry,” Libby said. “I called her, and at first I thought my mom was kidding. Then I realized she wasn’t, and I started crying.”

Anderson’s brother, Lane, was the only one awake when the fire started. It was 3 a.m. when he realized the roof was on fire.

The Anderson family met at the end of the driveway.

“I just wanted them to put the fire out so I could go back to bed,” Libby’s mom, Laura Anderson said. “I was tired. It was 3:30 in the morning.”

The Andersons went in the house later that day. What Libby remembers most from that day is that the ceiling fan of her bedroom was on her floor.

“The roof was in my kitchen. And my dining room and my living room and my front room,” Anderson said. “When I went inside, I ruined my shoes. The only pair of shoes I had.”

The Anderson family started in a hotel for a month.

“When I heard I’d be living in a hotel, I tried to stay positive,” Libby said. “ I wanted to keep my cool since the rest of my family was freaking out.”

The Andersons had to decide if they were going to rebuild or just sell the lot. After three months, they made the decision to rebuild.

“One of our biggest decisions was hiring a builder,” Laura said.

They moved into a rental house in February of 2011. That time was stressful for the family because they were trying to rebuild their house, and at the same time get all of the items back that they lost.

“I was worried about making sure all three kids had their share. I wanted to make sure everyone had what they needed that was lost in the fire like computers, backpacks, clothes, shoes, winter coats, and so on,” Laura said. “It’s hard to keep track of all that shopping.”

School was going on all at the same time, too.

“People at school gave me gift cards so that I could build a new wardrobe,” Libby said. “It was weird getting so much attention.”

Being in the rental house definitely messed up Libby’s normal after-school routine.

“I would have to get dropped off at my friend’s house in the old neighborhood and sometimes I would have to wait for like two hours at the burnt down house for my dad to pick me up,” she said. “I just sat there and did my homework with no roof.”

The most important thing to the family during this time was sticking together and making sure that they discussed any issues they were having. Libby’s mom made sure that if something was bothering someone, they would talk it out as a family.

The Anderson’s were also getting back belongings like old clothes, because they decided to have them cleaned professionally. Having them cleaned didn’t work out like they had hoped.

“The clothes would shrink and have pink dots all over them from the hot water they used to clean them,” Libby said. “Almost everything we got back was useless.”

Getting the clothes back also added the stress of having to sort through everything.

They waited and waited for their house to be ready. There were times when they were told that the house would soon be ready, but the dates that they were promised were always pushed back.

They were at seven months in the rental house when they were forced to leave. Another family had rented it out. They had expected another

family to be coming, but they had also expected their house to be more than ready, which didn’t go as planned.

“Keith told us that our house would be ready by then, but we had a feeling it wouldn’t be, so we sent all of our stuff back that we rented way, way too early, and we had to eat on the floor and stuff while these people were moving in,” Libby said. “They came while we were still moving out of the house.”

They now had to look at staying in another hotel. This time, it lasted for three months.

“It was horrible,” Laura said. “We had to walk the dogs about five times a day. It was very hard to prepare meals because the stove was very small and the fire alarm would go off every time we even tried to make a hamburger. I’m like, seriously? I’m going to evacuate this entire hotel just by cooking dinner?”

Libby hated living in the hotel because of how much room there wasn’t. She felt too close to her family. She was also very far away from school. She thought the food was nasty, and especially hated that waffle-maker that never failed to overcook the waffles.

“It stunk because in the room above me, the people had a really weird schedule and they’d leave at, like, 4 a.m. and come back at 6 a.m.,” she said. “They’d do a workout thing or something and land really hard on the floor and, yeah, that was my alarm.”

Libby’s father had to have a new routine as well.

“It was hard for Jim to work since he works from home, because the Internet wouldn’t work, and you had to have the printer and the scanner and everything hooked up,” Laura said. “The fire very much hurt his business.”

The whole family was affected. Libby’s two older brothers were staying two floors above her and her parents. Living so close to her brothers in the stressful state they were in cause them to fight more often.

After those three months, the family was eager to get back home. And expected total of two weeks in a hotel had turned into four months and two hotels.

Anderson and her mom were so eager that when they stayed in their new house for the first night, there were only beds, an island in the kitchen with no stools, and a couch. It was like that for a week or two.

“We had seen the house’s progress just about every day that year, so it was a great feeling getting to actually move in,” Laura said.

Presently, there is still work to be done, and there are still remnants of the fire even over a year later.

Every day, Anderson and her mom pick up nails, glass, and charred wood from the yard.

“I’ll be picking those up for years,” Laura said.

The other day, Libby found a brick by the side of the house which turned out to be from their roof. There were also big wires laying out in the yard that just got picked up a few days ago.

“We’re still working on the house. Hanging up hooks since there are no hooks in the same places, buying outdoor stuff like hoses, and repainting a lot of the outdoor furniture that just sat outside for a year,” Laura said. “We still don’t have a grill that works, and we are constantly buying new or trying to repair the old stuff.”

It’s hard for the Anderson’s to get over the things they don’t have anymore.

“Certain dishes that I want to use, I go get them from the cupboard, and I remember that I don’t have them anymore. I just sort of forget,” Laura said. “None of my clothes or shoes are the same. I miss my old stuff.”

A couple of weeks ago Libby and her mom replaced some nice kitchen knives and a Chi straightener that were lost in the fire. They thought that the quality of the products must have changed, because the brand new knives and straightener have already broken.

“I guess they don’t make things like they used to,” Laura said. “So it’s disappointing that you can’t get the same quality even though you buy the same brands.”

The recovery still isn’t over for the Anderson’s, but they have a brand new home, and every family member is safe and healthy. What got them through it was the fact that they stuck together.

Libby’s biggest relief?

“Just the feeling that we’re home again and we don’t have to move again.”