After Deadly Fire, Family Adapts To New Life Five Orphaned Children Join Family Of Aunt And Uncle

A deadly fire roared through a Bellingham house last spring, killing six people and devastating an immigrant family that had gathered there for a birthday celebration.

Today the survivors have found solace together, and the beginnings of a new life.

Aleksandr and Yelena Solodyankin opened their homes and hearts to the five children orphaned in the blaze - nephews and nieces who also lost two sisters, a brother and a cousin in the fire.

The Solodyankins, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, have three sons of their own, ranging in age from 4 to 9. But they did not hesitate to take in Aleksandr’s brother’s children - Olena, 12, and Ivan, 4, who survived the fire, and Tima, 11, Oleysa, 10, and Tatyana, 8, who had stayed behind in Spokane.

“Some people tell me, ‘How do you do this? You have three kids and then all of a sudden five more. It must be hard,”’ Yelena said.

“I tell them no. It’s not so hard when you love kids.”

She concedes it’s no easy task getting all eight children ready to attend the Russian Baptist church each Sunday.

But when she’s tired, she said, “I just think about Russian families who have more kids than I have. So it’s OK. They will grow up someday.”

The eight children drink a half-gallon of milk at each meal and two gallons of juice daily. The Solodyankins - pronounced solo-DYON-kinz - now make three trips a week to the grocery store, rather than just one.

Other accomodations are being made. A Spokane furniture store recently donated a 12-chair dining-room set, so the family’s 10 members no longer are eating meals in shifts.

And the Solodyankins moved in August, leaving a three-bedroom house - where two bedrooms slept three children each and a family room was converted for two boys - for a more spacious six-bedroom.

In the weeks right after the fire, grief made for some sleepless nights.

“In the day it wasn’t a problem, but before they went to bed they cried,” Aleksandr recalled. “They were so sad.”

The children still suffer from the loss of their parents, but they are settling in to their new life.

“People meeting them for the first time now would never have a clue about what happened to them four months ago,” said Judy Macfarlane, a friend who helps shuttle the children to music lessons. “The smiles are back on the children’s faces. They are happy.”

This summer, the youngsters have been busy with music lessons and swimming, baseball and tennis programs. The older children start school Tuesday, when the two 4-year-olds will begin preschool.

Before the fire, Aleksandr and Yelena had looked after the children while their parents attended English-language classes at a community college.

“We decided five minutes after the fire happened. We didn’t think about it lots. We just thought about the children,” said Aleksandr, 32.

The couple also had the necessary financial resources.

Aleksandr has a job on the pot line at Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.’s Mead smelter north of town. Yelena, 31, is a bilingual education assistant for Russian immigrant children at Audubon Elementary School.

“It is real interesting to watch someone who is so determined to do this without expecting any help,” said Macfarlane, school nurse at Audubon. “I think they really expected to do this on their own.”

The couple nonetheless is receiving monthly welfare payments of $740. In addition, charities and businesses have donated a refrigerator, washer and dryer and clothes..

The fire broke out April 7 at a family gathering to mark two birthdays.

Aleksandr’s brother, Vyacheslav, had gone to Bellingham with his wife, Yelena, and five of their eight children to visit another brother. There wasn’t room for all the youngsters in the family car.