Friday morning we were awakened to our next door neighbor's house on fire. The fire started in their toddler's room and quickly spread throughout the house. Luckily the family, including the baby, a 6 year old and an elderly great aunt were downstairs having breakfast and got out quickly and safely. Unfortunately, all the boys' stuff is destroyed. We got out safely and my husband was able to catch our cats before they spooked and ran off.
![]() |
| firetruck in the alley |
The good thing about living in an urban area is the emergency response time. The firefighters were there with 2 ladder companies in about 90 seconds- one on the street and one in the alley. The bad thing with urban housing is that row houses share a wall and fire spreads quickly. The firefighters ran into our house and cut holes through the ceiling out on to the roof. They doused everything with water. Our house thankfully never caught on fire, but the damage is immense. The dining room ceiling fell in, the nursery has a hole to the sky, the bathroom is damaged- all the rooms we worked on remodeling this year. The water damage goes into the kitchen, dining room, the sun room, spare bedroom and the basement.
![]() |
| Our bedroom |
Although we've lost a lot of our things, we are all safe. I am sad to see my Bulgaria pictures from Peace Corps and my
Kniga za Pechati (stamp book for Bulgarian National Sites) destroyed, most of the things can be salvaged or replaced. Some important things were ok- my husband was able to get his trumpet, an antique and gift from his grandfather who passed and our digital photos were backed up on a hard drive at his office.
The insurance company is like a parent who steps in and takes care of everything. Immediately after the fire, they had a contractor out at our house boarding up windows, skylights and putting a temporary patch on our roof (you can't put a tarp on a flat roof). They have put us in a hotel across town, not far from home. The insurance company has hired a fire response company to catalog all our belongings, salvage and clean what they can and store them while the house is restored. We can choose our own contractor, and we are choosing the contractor who did our bathroom. He's reliable, experienced, honest and likes restoring this old row houses. All the hardwood floors need to be replaced, the windows (yes, the new windows) need to be repaired/ replaced, the skylight, interior walls, electrical, etc. They've already started moving our belongings out to their warehouse to be stored and cleaned and tearing up walls and floors to start drying everything before mold can grow.
It's been an inconvenience, but not a tragedy. The fire happened on my husband's second day at a new job and my last at a part time assignment. We've been stressed because we both have travel plans this summer: I'm heading to Bulgaria to visit some old friends and he's heading home to see his parents and grandmother who isn't doing so well. I am thankful that we are all ok and that the insurance company will handle the clean up while we are out of town. I am so grateful my husband installed smoke detectors when we moved in and replaced the batteries a few weeks ago.
I'm including the evolution of the nursery bedroom. I am thankful that no one was hurt and that no child was asleep in the room during this.
![]() |
| Nursery when we moved in |
![]() |
Remodel almost done, new lighting and door added later |
![]() |
| as of now |
The new furniture, ceiling fan, door, and the damage goes beyond it to the spare bedroom and the water seeped into the walls and floor and through the ceiling.
All we can do now is count our blessings and move forward. Stuff can be repaired and replaced and no one was hurt. I am grateful the fire department responded so quickly and saved our house.
