{"id":74546,"date":"2020-01-25T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/what-to-expect-in-the-days-months-and-years-after-a-house-fire\/"},"modified":"2020-01-25T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T12:00:00","slug":"what-to-expect-in-the-days-months-and-years-after-a-house-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/what-to-expect-in-the-days-months-and-years-after-a-house-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect in the days, months and years after a house fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"David
David and Mandy Minton\u2019s house burned Sept. 14 in the 100 block of Ridge Road in the Rafter J subdivision. The Mintons are rebuilding on the same property. \u201cOur whole life is fire-related right now,\u201d Mandy Minton said. No one was injured in the blaze.<\/span>Bret Hauff\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Four months and 11 days ago, David Minton, 61, and his wife, Mandy, 58, pulled into their driveway after running errands. Mandy remembered looking at the clock in the car. It was 10:04 a.m. when their garage exploded.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Mintons have been overwhelmed piecing their lives together. While rebuilding on the same lot, they have been living in a rental home, must leave work for insurance meetings and still grieve over the loss of sentimental items.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t just automatically reset yourself in the style that you\u2019re used to,\u201d Mandy Minton said. \u201cYou have to rethink everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home fires are more common in the winter as people warm up their wood stoves and plug in their electric heaters. When a fire happens, it can have long-term impacts on physical and mental health, finances, employment and property. The Mintons and other fire survivors might never reach pre-fire recovery, but they can share strokes of good fortune and planning that made their disasters bearable.<\/p>\n

\"David
David Minton, left, talks with his contractor, Tim Nistler of Tim Nistler Builders, as they rebuild Minton\u2019s and his wife Mandy\u2019s home on Thursday in the Rafter J subdivision. After the September fire, community support and good insurance coverage kept them going through the disaster, they said.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThe next day, you wake up, and you\u2019re thinking, I need to take a shower, but then you think, I don\u2019t even have my hairbrush,\u201d Mandy Minton said. \u201cIt just hits you.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were 387,000 residential fires in 2018 in the United States, according to the Insurance Information Institute<\/a>. That\u2019s about 7,750 house fires per state or about two house fires per every 1,000 adults living in America.<\/p>\n

The structure fires caused $11.1 billion in property damage in 2018, up 3.7% from $10.7 billion in 2017.<\/p>\n

The recovery process is more difficult for people with fixed or low incomes, who are aging or who are uninsured, said Bill Werner, director of the American Red Cross for the San Juan region.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenior citizens are on a very tight budget. They just won\u2019t recover,\u201d Werner said.<\/p>\n

48 hours after the fire<\/div>\n

In the first moments after a fire, a system of support shifts into gear.<\/p>\n

An American Red Cross disaster team member shows up with toiletries and hundreds of dollars on a client-assistance card. They replace immediate needs, like medicine and eyeglasses, and provide stress and trauma resources. The organization also connects residents to a network of volunteer organizations.<\/p>\n

In the first 48 hours, insurance companies take charge \u2013 if the person has insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you lose everything and you don\u2019t have insurance, (the cost) is on you,\u201d Werner said. \u201cYou\u2019ve just lost all of your belongings. What do you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

In the weeks after a fire, a person could lose his or her job if he or she can\u2019t get to work, he said, especially while trying to replace burned clothes and work with insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou become resigned to it,\u201d said Karen Perkins, 64, whose home southeast of Durango burned in 2018. \u201cAt one point, you just go, \u2018Well, OK \u2026 no I don\u2019t have any of my own clothes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"At
At her home Wednesday, Karen Perkins says the heavy piece of metal is the only piece of her grandmother\u2019s piano that did not burn. Perkins, whose house burned outside Durango in 2018, moved into her new home Sunday.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Four months after the fire<\/div>\n

The Mintons\u2019 house near Durango burned<\/a> nine months after they completed a five-year renovation process. Now, they are doing it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur whole life is fire-related right now,\u201d Mandy Minton said. \u201cIt totally consumes everything \u2013 all of your time and your thoughts and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their experience with their employers, fire investigators and insurance company was positive. In fact, they had an insurance audit just before the fire, which was fortunate because the insurance money would not have covered costs otherwise, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even imagine how someone would go through the same thing we\u2019ve gone through if their insurance company was fighting them,\u201d David Minton said.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s community gave \u201camazing\u201d support. No one was near the explosion. Their insurance covered the costs.<\/p>\n

\"David
David Minton works on rebuilding his and his wife Mandy\u2019s home on Thursday in the Rafter J subdivision. Rebuilding has been overwhelming for Mandy, whose father died just before the September fire. David is just glad no one was injured.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Some of the fire\u2019s impacts are still fresh. David lost a dove ornament that belonged to his daughter who died. Mandy lost her father\u2019s photos and belongings. His funeral was four days before the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I couldn\u2019t talk about it without crying, and then I was OK,\u201d she said, grabbing a tissue to help with her tears. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s a dual thing because it\u2019s the exact same timing as losing my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years after the fire<\/div>\n

Two years after Karen Perkins\u2019 home was destroyed by fire<\/a>, she finally spent the first night in her new house.<\/p>\n

She and her children were up late playing cards when a chimney fire took hold in January 2018. It took 20 minutes for her home to burn. The belongings that survived sit in a small, cardboard box.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll never replace everything because a lot of it was sentimental stuff,\u201d she said. Baby books burned. Family photos are gone. She lost her grandmother\u2019s antique piano. \u201cThey\u2019re irreplaceable, but the important thing is \u2026 we all got out alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her, the fire is no longer difficult to discuss, just matter-of-fact. But she is still working with insurance, and she is still trying to fill her home with appliances and furniture.<\/p>\n

\"David
David Minton spends his days off rebuilding his and his wife Mandy\u2019s home in the Rafter J subdivision Thursday. The couple said all of their free time goes toward fire recovery.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The most difficult part was cataloging her belongings for the insurance company. The company wanted to know how many cans of green beans she had, how much they cost and when she bought them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know when I bought stuff, especially furniture. I had no idea,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was probably the most difficult part of the process.<\/p>\n

Perkins considers herself lucky. Her employer accommodated her needs. She was awake with her kids, instead of asleep, when the fire started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the support of my family, my neighbors, my friends,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s good people in this world, and I like to focus on the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victims tell stories of recovery: \u2018It totally consumes everything \u2013 all of your time and your thoughts\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[350,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fire","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74546"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}