Marion family loses everything in home fire

July 20--Dianna Soderholm was working Monday morning in her shop 40 yards from her Marion mobile home when she smelled something burning. She walked to the edge of the shop to see dark clouds of smoke rolling out of her bedroom and bathroom windows.

"When you see something like that, it's so hard to comprehend that, 'My god, my home is on fire and my son and dogs are inside,'" Soderholm said.

She ran to the house where her 24-year-old son was asleep. The dogs were in the living room beneath the smoke and she could see flames coming from her master bathroom heading toward the ceiling.

After waking her son and ushering the dogs out, Soderholm watched her house burn from the front yard. She heard someone call 911 for help and she saw her son go into the house several times trying to pour water on the flames.

By the time the fire department arrived, the entire home was engulfed in flames, Soderholm said.

"Flames were coming out of every window. It happened so fast, everything's gone," she said. "We don't have insurance and I don't know how much it will cost to rebuild, but we need everything, from appliances to beds."

Given where the fire started, Soderholm said she believes it was an electrical fire.

The night the fire left the family of three homeless, Soderholm held her dog in her driveway as she looked at the pieces of wood and sheets of metal that had been her home of roughly nine years.

"The hardest part right now is that one of our dogs won't leave the house. He keeps just laying in front of it. He doesn't eat and won't leave the front yard," Soderholm said.

Soderholm's mobile home was one of three residences on a family property.

Nearly a decade ago, Soderholm, her husband and at the time two teenage sons left Wisconsin to live closer to family.

"We were just looking for something different, and my dad said, 'If you come out here, 10 acres are yours,'" she said.

The property, surrounded by wooded land just west of Marion, offered the peace her family sought.

Soderholm created an income by repurposing furniture and her husband, Jeff, started a job working construction for Kramer Enterprises Inc.

As the family prepares to build a new home, Soderholm said her family and the community already have stepped up.

Kramer Enterprises let the family borrow a fifth-wheel trailer to live in until they build a new house. Someone else donated $500 for the family to buy basic needs such as clothes and bathroom supplies.

The day after the fire, Soderholm looked around her front yard. Part of a metal bed frame stuck out of the debris. She could see her caved-in roof through her living-room window.

Her husband pulled out the only box he could find that wasn't scorched by the fire. It contained her oldest son's high school yearbook and a few dozen family photos.

"That's all that's left, but honestly I just feel so grateful to have at least that and my family and dogs safe," she said. "But we really are starting over, we don't even have sweaters -- I hadn't even thought of that. Right now our focus is just trying to rebuild before winter."

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Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.

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