Their house is gone, but this is still home

Nov. 1--MALDEN -- The sun sank noiselessly below a pine tree-capped ridge while Vanessa Place calmly described her family's against-long-odds escape from a fire that just weeks earlier destroyed their town, taking their home and scores of other structures.

Behind Place was a recreational vehicle trailer where she is living with her husband, Brian Place, and their four children, on a lot where they've removed as much charred vegetation as possible to minimize visible reminders of the disaster. Beside the trailer was a shipping container for extra possessions and supplies.

Next to her was the ground she and Brian leveled to install a new septic system, first steps in constructing a 936-square-foot home they realize will likely not be ready until the summer, at least.

"If it was up to us, we would probably have the walls up," Brian said, as the air around him cooled in the autumn dusk.

While it isn't as much progress as they would like, it's enough to help the Places restore some normalcy to their family after living for more than a month at an RV park in the nearby town of Rosalia.

Vanessa was keeping an eye on the time. One of her sons was going to Boy Scouts, and she needed to be in Rosalia in less than an hour for a meeting of the Pine Creek Community Restoration Long-Term Recovery Group. She serves on the board of the group that formed to represent the communities hit by the fire.

Getting this far has taken much of their savings, donations from a GoFundMe account and every spare minute the Places had when they weren't working or helping their children cope with the devastation that continually surrounds them.

One of the first steps was figuring out if they would stay or move somewhere else.

Even with more than half of the houses gone, Malden still offers more of a community than any place else they could go, said Vanessa, who is a part-time caregiver, the Malden librarian and a volunteer Girl Scout troop leader.

Their daughter Chloe, 17, is a senior and student body president at the high school in Rosalia. Chloe didn't want to change schools and graduate with students she barely knew.

The family moved from California 3 1/2 years ago and found what they wanted: a more peaceful place to raise their children. Besides Chloe, there's Thomas, 14, Brian II, 12, and Alleigh, 9.

If anything, the fire strengthened the family's commitment to Malden when they saw how everyone pulled together in the evacuation.

"The biggest miracle was no death," Vanessa said.

The day of the blaze, high winds made her edgy enough she had moved the family's pet rabbits indoors. She was worried about large limbs falling from the pine trees that towered over their single-story home, constructed in 1908.

Initially it was a Facebook message from a friend that alerted her that a fire might be a threat too, and she did a preliminary sweep of her block to warn her neighbors of the danger. She urged them to get ready to leave and told them if she returned it would be because the time to go was now.

At home, she and her family gathered water, snacks and paper documents, but not her computer hard drive, and other items such as chargers for Chromebooks the family no longer had that only in hindsight did they realize were useless. They opened the doors to the chicken coop.

"In your mind, you think you have a for-real plan," she said.

About the time they saw 4-inch ash flakes falling, they decided not to wait for any kind of official order and left in a caravan.

She was in the front with three of their children, an elderly neighbor and their dog. Chloe was with Place's mother-in-law with the family rabbits in a PT Cruiser. A neighbor and his disabled son, who needs assistance moving, followed in a different vehicle. The neighbors had been ready to leave partly because of Place's notification.

Brian Place was in the back, pulling the trailer they had decided to hook up at the last minute.

"When we left, we said we would be back," Vanessa Place said. "I didn't think my house would be gone."

Familiar landmarks were obscured by dust and smoke, making it difficult to navigate. A traffic jam formed on a bridge not far out of town because a neighbor was walking a spooked horse that had resisted being loaded into a trailer.

"It was dark black from the smoke," Vanessa said. "There was fire everywhere. It was pretty intense."

They inched their way to Rosalia on a back road, then checked on their house later that afternoon.

"That's one of the worst experiences I've ever been through," she said. "The hole where our house was was still on fire."

It wasn't just their house and its contents. Two shops, a car, a boat, a trailer, three kayaks and all of the family's bicycles were gone too.

Since that time, they've gradually been putting their lives back together, focusing as much as possible on what's going right.

Brian's work tools were in the truck he pulled the trailer with. Their cat, dog, chickens and rabbits all survived, and the town of Rosalia didn't charge them for their stay in its recreational vehicle park.

They didn't have insurance because their house was so old they couldn't get coverage. They delayed updates and an addition when Brian, a building contractor, was temporarily out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The money they had saved for that project is being funneled into their new house, and Brian will be able to do much of the construction himself, pulling in friends who are electricians and plumbers to help.

Along the way, they've made many choices, selecting a different lot for their new house on a block they already owned that is higher on a hill, with more of a view.

What they have accomplished isn't enough to quiet all their worries, one of the biggest being when they will have all the approvals needed to get their building permit.

But they are resolved to make it work.

"The land is still our home," Vanessa said.

Williams may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 553-8482

"When we left, we said we would be back. I didn't think my house would be gone."

Vanessa Place, describing the day of the fire

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