Mattapan couple loses house in blaze, looks forward to ‘rebuild’

Jun. 18--Days after watching flames rip through her house, Alena Kuzub-Eisen said her family is trying to stay optimistic while they start rebuilding their lives.

"It's just materials, it is all just things that can be replaced," Kuzub-Eisen said. "We will have a lot to figure out now, it will take time but I am happy we are all well."

She and her husband, Scott, lost their home Saturday after a nine-alarm fire destroyed eight houses in Mattapan. The blaze sent seven firefighters and two civilians to the hospital.

When the fire started in the house next to them, they only had a few minutes to gather some belongings and their dogs before the flames reached their house. The pair along with their 5-year-old Boston terrier and their 7-year-old French bulldog sat at the end of the street with their wallets, dog leashes, some of Kuzub-Eisen's photography equipment and the clothes on their backs -- the only things they were able to get out of the house.

The couple spent Sunday and Monday going through the rubble of their once three-story house to see what wasn't destroyed by fire or water. The third floor had collapsed and the lower levels were flooded in multiple feet of water, paint was peeling and soot covered the walls.

Kuzub-Eisen said they were able to recover some valuable things such as jewelry, some clothes, art and even their family heirloom -- a china set that was made in Eastern Germany during Europe's "hard times" and brought to the U.S. from Belarus.

"We are just trying not to look at what we have lost, but how we will rebuild and support each other through this," Kuzub-Eisen said.

The couple bought the house just over two years ago, and while the insurance adjusters didn't have a damage estimate for them yet, Kuzub-Eisen said she believed the market value of the home alone was more than $600,000.

"Our in-laws are surprised by how OK we are with this," Kuzub-Eisen said, "but I just look at it like it is what it is."

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