‘It didn’t seem real’: Moyer family watched their home burn on Ring cameras in Upriver fire

Fire has a sound. An eerie crackling as the blaze burns through trees, bushes, grassy fields and homes.

Andren Moyer knows the sound well. She and her family listened to it as they watched their home burn via Ring camera footage last week.

More than a dozen homes were destroyed in the Upriver fire, including six on North Emerald Lane, two on Columbia Court and four on Mulvaney Court. The Moyers lived at 5209 N. Mulvaney Court for 20 years. Now, the home where they used to hold music recitals, host family get-togethers and enjoy the view from the back porch is ash.

Moyer and her husband, Chris, have three sons: 24-year-old Camden Moyer, 23-year-old Carson Moyer and 19-year-old Conlin Moyer. They all watched on Ring as flames engulfed the trees in their backyard and jumped to the house.

“My son had to uninstall the app. It was too much for him,” Andren Moyer said.

They knew, as they watched the Ring camera footage, that their home was going to burn.

“It looked like a damn warzone. You can’t describe it to anybody,” Andren Moyer said, choking up. “Our life that we had there was gone, and it was devastating and heartbreaking. It didn’t seem real.”

No one was home when the fire began, but Andren, Chris and Carson came back to the house before the fire reached the neighborhood, collecting laptops, cash, passports, instruments and the family cat. This was the Moyers’ fourth time evacuating their home because of threats of a fire.

“We had less than five minutes in the house,” Andren Moyer said.

Once the front door was open, their cat Maui bolted. Andren Moyer said Maui was spotted in a different neighborhood two days ago, but the family is eager to be reunited.

Chris Moyer is an electrical engineer by day and music teacher by night. He teaches jazz, piano, saxophone, clarinet and flute. He’s also the assistant director of the MasterClass Big Band. Andren and Chris met at an a cappella competition in 1991 and have been singing or performing together ever since. To this day, Andren performs with an a cappella quartet.

All three of their sons play several instruments, including woodwinds, strings and percussion. Conlin Moyer is a music major at Eastern Washington University. Carson Moyer is a percussionist who produces, composes and writes music that’s available on Spotify. Camden Moyer is a saxophonist and plays several other reed instruments.

Dozens of instruments and an in-home recording studio were lost in the fire. The pearls Andren Moyer wore on her wedding day are gone.

Music is a big part of the Moyer family, so it’s fitting that the music community is rallying around them after they lost everything.

Andren Moyer found out about a benefit concert for her family when her brother sent her a photo of a flier that had a photo of the family taken on New Year’s Eve last year. In big blue letters, it reads “Moyer Family Relief Concert.”

The concert is at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Hamilton Studio, 1427 W. Dean Ave. Andren Moyer still isn’t sure who organized the concert, but MasterClass Big Band, Imagine Jazz Collective, the Dues Big Band and members of the Hot Club of Spokane will all be performing. The Moyers are not planning on performing, but since the family often joins MasterClass, it’s possible an impromptu performance will happen, Andren Moyer said.

All donations raised at the concert will go to the Moyer family. They are also raising money online at givesendgo.com.

The first time Andren Moyer saw the house after the fire was on Facebook, when someone from the area posted photos of a few destroyed homes. It was several days later when Andren Moyer and her family were able to witness the damage first-hand.

“We saw nothing but a chimney and my burnt-up car,” Andren said.

There hasn’t been a day since the fire when tears didn’t stream down her face, Andren Moyer said. The Moyers are staying at a home about a mile away from their destroyed home. But Andren Moyer has gone back to the ruin on Mulvaney Court almost every chance she gets.

“It’s very humbling,” she said.