Community rallies to support Rogers City family during ?devastating? time

If Suzanne LaLonde could use one word to describe the outpouring of support from family, friends, and from the community it would be ?grateful.? Accepting donations from people has been a tough position for the Rogers City woman and her daughter. ?I?m not used to being a taker,? she said. ?I?m usually a giver. That is what is really hard.? LaLonde?s West Michigan Avenue home suffered significant heat and smoke damage from a fire January 6. Window shutters curled, a three-year-old refrigerator was unrecognizable, and all the work Suzanne and her daughter, Chelsea, had done to refurbish the interior was ruined. In the more than four weeks since the fire, people from the community have been coming forward to help the LaLondes pick up the pieces of their lives.

LAST WEDNESDAY, St. Ignatius Catholic Church hosted a potluck dinner. Along with a donation for the meal, people left envelopes in a basket. St. John Lutheran Church also hosted a luncheon for the mother and daughter. Some banks and credit unions have been designated drop off points for donations through the end of the month. The Rogers City Lions Club also has donated $200. With the assistance they have received, Suzanne said ?you can have your big cities.?

Chelsea said, ?You expect it. You just don?t expect it to the extent that we?ve had it. People that we don?t even know have brought things.? The day after the fire, the LaLondes were at the house boarding up the windows when a woman from the neighborhood they did not know brought them food.

THE FIRE is believed to have started in the basement, although the exact cause is still undetermined. In less than 15 minutes, Suzanne went from working on paperwork at her dining room table to watching firefighters bust out a bay window next to the same table. Suzanne and Chelsea originally smelled something in the basement the night before the fire, but it went away when the dryer went off. They played cards and watched TV and nothing alarming happened. The next day, Chelsea and her boyfriend came back from lunch. Chelsea asked ? ?what are you doing mom? It smells like something is burning in here.? ? Suzanne originally thought it might be smoke from her neighbor?s firewood finding its way down through the chimney fireplace. Chelsea thought it was something stronger.

?WE WENT down in the basement and noticed a haze in the air. It was kind of smoldering around my dryer vent,? said Suzanne. ?I had insulation packed in there. I took all of that out. Her boyfriend looked real well. We couldn?t see anything else. At that point I was kind of shaken. We looked and didn?t see any other problem. We thought the pipe just got too hot on that insulation.? Suzanne took the insulation outside and left the back door open to get the smell out. Still shaken, Suzanne remembers saying to Chelsea, ?could you imagine our house burning down? I said thank goodness we were here.

?Then it wasn?t too long, (Chelsea) had gone back upstairs and my retriever had come up from the basement. He was snorting like something was in his nose. When I looked up, hearing him do that, I noticed my kitchen was filling with smoke.? With the thick smoke, they had a hard time getting out the backdoor, but Chelsea was able to run across the street to call 911. By the time Chelsea got back, the back of the house was in flames.

SUZANNE WAS told it is the second fastest fire the Rogers City Fire Department has battled. Suzanne said they were fortunate the fire did not start during the night. She is also thankful for all the support; emotionally and financially. ?God truly has blessed me individually, because I have a wonderful family, a great community, a super priest who brings spiritual support,? Suzanne told the people gathered in the St. Ignatius gym for the potluck. ?I have wonderful, wonderful neighbors.? While Suzanne was insured, the money raised will assist her with many of the up front expenses that have put a drain on her savings account. From clothing to toothbrushes, Chelsea?s computer for college, along with cash that burned up, the money raised will help the family get back to some semblance of normalcy sooner.

IT HAS BEEN

a difficult ordeal to go through, and emotions are still hard to keep in check. A couple of days before the St. Ignatius dinner, Suzanne found herself crying again. As part of the insurance settlement, LaLonde has needed to inventory her belongings. Another trip through the gutted home continues to reignite the feelings of sadness. She has appreciated the assistance of her local insurance carrier, who attended the St. Ignatius dinner, but if there is one piece of advice she can give people is that they should inventory what they own. ?Video tape your homes,? LaLonde said. ?Video tape everything in your cupboards.?

She also stressed the importance of having enough smoke detectors throughout the house, and the need for fresh batteries in the devices. The smoke detector in the basement did not go off. ?The first couple of days we cried,? said Suzanne. ?Then we realized that we were glad to have our lives.?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.