Fire puts family of six out in the cold

Jamie Doran

Valley Press

A fire on High Country Road the night of Nov. 19 left a trailer completely destroyed and a family of six with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Christy and Tim Anderson's trailer at 336 High Country Road caught on fire around 7 p.m. and it was all Christy could do to get the four children out before flames engulfed the building.

"She wasn't able to get out with even a diaper bag," Christy's mother Diane Walker said. "They didn't have any insurance and just lost everything."

The Andersons are staying with Tim's parents while they try to pick up the pieces of what was once their house. The Red Cross spoke with them last Thursday and Walker has already set up a fund, The Anderson Fire Fund, for donations.

"All of the donations will go to the children," Walker said.

Christy Anderson said that she has been walking in a haze since the fire happened.

"We're surviving as best as we possibly can," Anderson said.

Anderson said that they are still looking through burned possessions in the trailer. "We've gotten some stuff out right now, we're still digging through the wreckage."

She said she was pretty sure the wood stove caused the fire.

"I walked into the next room over from where the wood stove was and I saw flames," she said. "When you first think about it, you don't think. All that was going through my head was, what am I going to do, what am I supposed to do. You pretty much have to be told what to do," she added.

Luckily, everyone made it out all right. Anderson was home alone with four children: 9-month-old twins, a 2-year-old and a 12-year-old got out of the home safely.

"I couldn't think," she said. "Nobody could think as to what to do. It was a total shock for everyone."

To makes things more difficult for the family, Anderson's husband leaves Jan. 3 for his second tour of duty in Iraq. He is scheduled to be gone at least a year.

"It's only going to get worse from here," Anderson said tiredly. "He's going to be gone for at least a year and I've got my hands full, doing it one day at a time."

The Red Cross has visited the Andersons and has already supplied them with some essentials.

"The helped us get the prescriptions and everything that we have lost," Anderson said. "They've also given us toys for the kids and blankets as well."

While the Red Cross has helped, they by no means have supplied enough to recoup their losses and that's why Walker set up a fund through Rocky Mountain Bank.

Anderson said that any donations would be welcome, however since they don't have a place of their own it makes it a little more difficult to collect what they need.

"Right now it's hard telling, knowing exactly what we need," she said. "Until we get into a place of our own everything is kind of on hold."

Although Anderson did say the family could use lumber for flooring and walls.

For now the Andersons will be staying with Tim's parents, Florence and Leon while they continue to sort through the wreckage that used to be their home.

"We've got another trailer," Anderson said. "And if we got everything sorted through we could get it ready and move in there."

In order to get the trailer ready, the floors and walls need to be replaced. Anderson said any donations of lumber would be appreciated. However, before that can happen the family needs another dumpster for the remains of the previous trailer and Anderson said it just isn't something they can afford right now.

"It's hard to afford another dumpster," she said with a sigh. "It's $300 for one of the big ones, and we're definitely going to need another one to be able to get all of the damaged things out of there."

Both the Plains City Fire Department and the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire Department responded to the fire.

"Since they were out of the city, we responded with mutual aid," Plains City Fire Department Chief Larry Ballantyne said. "We sent an engine and a personnel van and nine people responded with the city department in support of the rural guys."

Plains-Paradise Rural Fire Department Assistant Chief Lee Mercier said that they got the call at 6:26 p.m. Wednesday night.

"We had a total of 24 guys respond, with 15 of them from the rural fire department," Mercier said.

He added that they had the fire under control shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday but they didn't get to leave the scene until 9:40 p.m.

For the most part, the trailer was a complete loss.

"There was only one room that was saved and it had heavy smoke damage," Mercier explained.

Mercier said from the eye witness report that the fire started at the wood stove and the blaze went from there. He cautioned that wood stoves, while beneficial during the winter months, can be rather dangerous.

"When you start a stove, it has to be hot and the last time you get the fire going before you go to bed it should be another hot fire," he said. "You don't want to let it smolder, that's when you get build-up in the chimney that can lead to a fire."

Anderson said that her family owes a lot to the firemen and she can't thank them all enough for what they did.

"I definitely want to thank the firemen," she said. "The did an absolutely wonderful job and I'm glad that they were able to get the fire out."