Family picks up pieces after fire destroys home

EPHRATA — If Julie Welsh could have taken anything with her before the fire, she would have taken her family photos and her children's things.

A fire destroyed her family's Ephrata home on Sunday.

"It's pretty devastating," Welsh said. "I'm very angry, I guess. I'm angry because it happened."

Before the fire, Welsh and her family intended to sell the mobile home and rent a larger home in Moses Lake. A couple signed papers Friday to purchase the home, and Welsh's family spent the weekend moving items out. On Sunday, before everything was moved out, Welsh received a phone call informing her house burned down.

Fire crews were called to the fire at 2:20 a.m. Sunday. The Grant County fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire. An estimate placed the damage to the home at $40,000.

Fire Marshal Dave Nelson said Thursday little remains of the home.

The most personal items to the family were still in the house when it burned down, including all the family photos of Welsh, her husband, her two foster children and her biological son and daughter. The majority of her children's Christmas presents were destroyed. The fire destroyed the single existing photo of Welsh's father from his funeral. Her husband's Vietnam items were in the home, and so were her first husband's photos and military documents. A China hutch her father built was destroyed, and so was her grandmother's China dishes.

"How do you put a value on that? How do I put a value on a Purple Heart?" she said. "I don't know how to put a value on something like that."

The family cat sat on top of the hood to the family truck the night before and was taken away from the home. Welsh wonders what might have happened if her cat had run off. The bathroom window was open on Saturday night.

Welsh said the community showed little support for her after the fire. None of her neighbors asked how she was doing, she said. The only people who showed any support for her are the mobile home park managers and one person from her insurance company.

"I guess I'm really disappointed because I've not had one person in this entire community call and say, 'Do you need anything? Are you OK? Can I do anything for you?' That's just my heart," Welsh said.

Welsh said she purchased the home from a woman in 1997 when she was single, going to school and raising two children. Her down payment included moving the home from its previous lot, paying the taxes on it and re-roofing it. The home was a clean, warm place she could provide for her family. She still owes about $12,000. Although the previous owner tells her not to worry about the remaining cost of the house, Welsh is concerned with paying her back. Welsh called the woman her savior.

"She's got something coming, I mean she's taken a loss too. We all have," she said.

She said she wouldn't wish the same experience on anyone.

Her plans after the fire are to sell a remaining mobile home she currently rents out and continue to live in the larger Moses Lake home. She plans to adopt her two foster children, see her son off to the Navy and put her daughter through high school.