Home Rises From Ashes Town Helps Family Recover

A year after the ashes of their former home cooled, Mike and Renae Kinzer still feel a twinge when they pull into their driveway.

“It’s kind of a major thing to have happen,” Mike Kinzer said Sunday. “It sticks with you a while.”

Last Labor Day weekend, the family returned home to discover their trailer home was a charred shell. Heat shattered the windows, the flames burned away the floor.

Only hours after they’d left, lightning hit a nearby electrical transformer. Overloaded circuits triggered the blaze. Nearly everything inside the Kinzer’s home - clothes, bedding, furniture - was destroyed by flames, heat or smoke. They had no insurance - it had lapsed by a few days, and didn’t cover power surges, anyway.

“It was an awful shock. The inside was totally gutted,” said Mike Kinzer, a mechanic.

“Momma was really sad. She was crying,” said Kenny, the couple’s six-year-old son.

Then, things started happening.

A neighbor brought over a large camper to stay in. Others brought boxes of clothes for the family’s two children. People donated a sink and a toilet.

A Spirit Lake community group, the Visions club, organized a city-wide dinner. Local stores donated food. When it was over, the Kinzer’s held a check for $1,000.

Lumber stores in Athol and Coeur d’Alene donated wood. A cement company offered to pour a foundation at cost. A carpenter and concrete worker agreed to trade their labor for Kinzer’s mechanical work. Neighbors whose own home had burned brought over a washer and dryer.

“It’s a small enough town that people can get together and help each other,” said Kinzer.

“Out of my shop, I’ve always helped people,” he said. “And it’s all coming back to me now. People are saying ‘What can I do for you?”’

“I didn’t expect as much help as we got,” said Renae Kinzer, who works as a waitress. “Moving into the country really scared me. I was used to walking to the mall. But I love the close-knitness.”

The only thing spared by the fire was the home’s living room addition - which contained family photos and home videos.

“We were extremely lucky,” said Mike Kinzer. “We weren’t home when it happened. And we saved the things you can’t replace.”

“If we’d been home, we’d have been lucky to survive,” said his wife.

For temporary quarters, the family fixed up an old bunkhouse on the property.

Their new home - including power-surge protectors and fire-escape windows - is about half-finished. They hope to move in by the first of the year.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo