Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Local community to the rescue

Celina family begins again after fire destroys home

By Margie Wuebker
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

The Eichler family stands on a stairway leading to a deck at their fire-ravaged home. Shown from bottom to top are 5-year-old Jack, 8-year-old Carley, 10-year-old Lincoln, 12-year-old Isaiah, 15-year-old Eddie, Steve Eichler and Katey Eichler. The Feb. 12 fire started in the garage of the home they were nearly finished remodeling.

CELINA - Flames, smoke and water destroyed the Mud Pike residence Steve and Katey Eichler's family called home, but it didn't destroy their spirit.
"We keep telling the kids it's only a house, and it's only stuff," Katey said. "All that can be replaced sooner or later. More importantly, we are all here and unhurt."
The Saturday morning blaze one week ago has sparked an outpouring of support and donations that continues to amaze not only Steve and Katey but also their five children, ranging in age from 5 to 15.
"We want to thank the community that came to our aid," Steve said. "Many of the donations were made anonymously, so we don't even know who to thank."
The outpouring started immediately even as firefighters worked feverishly to extinguish the blaze and to salvage belongings. A neighbor opened her home giving the Eichlers a warm place to watch the drama unfold. Other neighbors pulled clothing from their children's closets to aid the family.
One local car dealer who heard the family's vehicles had been destroyed dropped off a Suburban before fire trucks cleared the scene. A second dealer delivered a car; Red Cross representatives arrived on the scene to assist; their insurance agent showed up and arrangements were finalized for a two-bedroom apartment at West Lake Villas. Friends made sure all the basics, from dishes and silverware to cereal and Pop Tarts, were in place when the Eichlers arrived at the apartment.
The blaze, discovered at 11:40 a.m., began in the three-car garage added as part of the family's latest remodeling project.
Katey, a kindergarten teacher at West Elementary School in Celina, and Steve, a Crown Equipment Corp. employee, were painting the living room and the stairway leading to the upstairs bedrooms.
"I smelled something - not smoke, more like hot plastic," he said. "I wondered whether somebody had left something in the oven."
Katey looked out the front window and saw dense smoke. She then looked through the window of a door leading to the garage and saw orange flames everywhere.
She called "fire" and turned around to find all five children - Eddie, 15, Isaiah, 12, Lincoln, 10, Carley, 8, and Jack, 5, - standing there. Just seconds before, they had been enjoying a leisurely morning in the basement. No one took time to don coats or shoes; they went outside on the deck and then into the snow-covered yard with only the clothes on their backs. Katey grabbed a stack of scrapbooks on the way out.
"We were in the last stage of remodeling and putting a second coat of paint on what was becoming the house of our dreams," Katey said. "I kept thinking 'We're going to lose it all' as we stood outside. That is without a doubt the most helpless feeling in the world."
Smoke detectors went off as the family fled.
"I had 10 smoke detectors located throughout the house but none in the garage," Steve said. "I would encourage everyone to put one there."
An investigator from the state fire marshal's office pinpointed the cause of the fire as spontaneous combustion in a pile of rags left from staining woodwork.
The Eichlers have nothing but praise for local firefighters who remained on the scene salvaging what little belongings remained.
"Those men worked so hard fighting the blaze and then they went the extra mile by taking family pictures off the walls and covering them with a tarp," Katey said. "They also carried boxes of pictures and the kids' school projects from the basement."
One firefighter emerged from the charred home with Jack's Batman toys in hand. Others emerged with Steve's wallet, Katey's purse, a small fireproof box containing important papers and a mound of backpacks holding the children's schoolwork and their mother's lesson plans.
"We had moved a lot of things like backpacks to the far side of the house during painting and that was fortunate," Katey said.
The Eichlers returned to the house the day after the fire hoping to find closure and more mementos. Steve and the firefighter accompanying them retrieved Katey's wedding rings from a debris-covered bathroom vanity. They fished Jack's shoes from water in the basement and recovered his Ohio State University billfold still containing a $7 fortune.
"Seeing the upstairs bedrooms was the hardest part," Katey said with tears in her eyes. "Flames literally climbed up the garage wall and into the attic leaving behind so much damage."
  More than a thousand books belonging to family members fell victim in Carly's bedroom and Isaiah's Christmas present - a shiny new guitar - became a blob of melted plastic. Hard-earned trophies for athletic accomplishments also melted, and only bits and pieces of autographed photos remained.
Every piece of sports equipment - from basketballs to baseball cleats - disintegrated in the garage. Even the basketball backboard melted.
"Steve and I bought the land before we got married," Katey said. "We built the house and spent our wedding night there. And we added on to make room as our family grew."
Future plans include rebuilding at the site and compiling a list of everything to be replaced. They laugh at the latter project, pointing out they have made trips to the store in recent days just to buy tape, Post-it notes, paper and a pen - things normally stored in one small drawer.
Katey recalls hearing someone mention Valentine's Day when she dropped off her lesson plans at school Monday morning.
"I never felt more loved than I do now," she said wiping away tears. "People in this community have given so freely and that would not happen in a big city. We are so grateful for everything, but all we need now are prayers as we approach the task of putting our lives back together one day at a time."
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Steve Eichler looks through damaged clothing near an upstairs bedroom as daughter Carley looks on. The family of seven is now residing in a two-bedroom apartment until contractors can rebuild their home.

Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard

Substitute teacher Kassie Holstad shaves a swipe of hair from Celina High School Principal Jason Luebke as Bryant Miller, right, dean of students, waits his turn. The pair along with Celina football coach Jared Rolfes, not pictured, all agreed to have their heads shaved if the students raised at least $3,500 for the Eichler family. The students raised just over $5,000.

Additional online story on this date
MARIA STEIN - The Coldwater Cavaliers and the Marion Local Flyers continued their football rivalry on Friday night, but they did it on the hardwood instead of the gridiron. [More]
Subscriber and paid stories on this date
Spillway lawsuit
The state has been ordered to pay a local couple $1.038 million more in compensation for their farmland being flooded by Grand Lake's West Bank spillway.
$1million available from USDA for conservation efforts to help Grand Lake Watershed
GRAND LAKE - Another $1 million in federal money is coming to help Grand Lake Watershed farmers pay for conservation practices that lessen nutrient runoff and hopefully curb algae growth in the lake.
More than 300 Midwest Electric customers experienced a power outage Thursday afternoon likely caused by gusty winds.
A broken jumper device at the
Bulldogs clinch at least a share of league title for first time since 2002-03 and can win it outright on Friday
LIMA - The Celina boys' basketball team won at least a share of the Western Buckeye League championship on Friday night for the first time in eight years.
NEW KNOXVILLE - Going into Friday night's Midwest Athletic Conference contest with the Versailles Tigers, the New Knoxville Rangers knew that a win would give them at least a share of their fourth MAC title in five years.
ST. HENRY - As the game wore on, St. Henry got stronger and stronger.
The Redskins pulled away from Minster in the third quarter to move above .500 on the season with a 79-65 win on Friday night over the Wildcats in Midwest Athletic Conference action at Redskin Middle School Gymnasium.
Western Buckeye League Roundup
Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
Van Wert jumped out on Ottawa-Glandorf from the opening tip and never looked back on the way to knocking the Titans out of first place in the Western Buckeye League with a 59-39 drubbing at the Cougar Den in Van Wert on Friday.
Midwest Athletic Conference Roundup
Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
Jared Kahlig's layup with 19 seconds remaning in the game allowed Fort Recovery to snap an eight-game losing streak as the Indians escaped Arnzen Gymnasium with a 31-29 win over the St. John's Blue Jays on Friday night in Midwest Athletic Conference play.
Compiled by Gary R. Rasberry
Local teams took three of the four team district qualifying spots as the girls' sectional bowling tournament took place on Friday at Community Lanes in Minster.