County fire victims grateful for support

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

MIDDLE POINT — Most people are unaware of the help available locally in times of disaster. Certainly, the Whittemires — Brian, wife Amy, and daughter Renee — didn’t realize the extent of the support, both financial and emotional, they could count on until they were the victims of a house fire nearly a month ago.

It was less than a week before Christmas 2019 and the temperatures had turned cold. Brian Whittemire decided he would build the first fire of the season in the fireplace of his rental home on Converse Roselm Road near Middle Point. Unfortunately, heat from the fireplace resulted in a chimney fire that spread through the closed-off second story of the house during the early morning hours. The fire eventually forced family members from the home with not much more than the clothes on their backs.

“At about 10 ‘til 2 in the morning, I woke up and I (saw) a haze,” Whittemire said, adding he isn’t sure what woke him up, but believes it was a heaven-sent warning. “At the time I really didn’t even smell the smoke; about a minute later, it was very noticeable. In that minute, I already had my wife and daughter woke up and I told them ‘get the dogs, get out of the house, don’t worry about grabbing anything, just get out’.”

Whittemire said he followed them out of the house, thinking he would go back in and investigate after he was sure his family and five dogs were safe. That was a good decision, since he discovered flames already shooting out of the roof and second floor of the structure when he turned around to look at the home the family had lived in for nearly seven years.

“It had been burning over our heads for three to four hours,” Whittemire said of the fire, adding that, approximately 10 minutes after they were out, the second story collapsed onto the first floor. “Another 10 minutes (and) none of us would be here.”

The fire left the Whittemires freezing and homeless, and destroyed nearly all the household items they had accumulated during their lives together.

“I stood there: it was 4 degrees outside, wind blowing considerably, I was freezing … I was in shock … watching my house and everything just go,” he said.

But help was already on the way.

Along with firefighters from five area fire departments who came to fight the fire, one of the first people on the scene was Amy Schroeder, a volunteer with the Van Wert County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

“She was there before they even started dumping any water on the house,” Whittemire said, adding that Schroeder was “one of the most fantastic people I have ever met.”

Whittemire said Schroeder helped the family in so many ways. 

“She wanted to make sure we (were) warm, got us coffee and doughnuts, got us a motel room for three nights,” he said, adding the local American Red Cross met with the family the next day, gave them a gift card for more than $600, and also provided funding for another two nights at the local Comfort Inn while the family worked to find a new place to live. CERT also gave the family a Walmart gift card for $300 to help replace the items they lost, while Walmart provided an additional $200 gift card, Whittemire said.

It wasn’t long before more donations, including clothing from The Salvation Army and other sources, started pouring in, Whittemire said.

“The donations started pouring in immediately, from everybody,” he noted.

Many people stepped in to help out the fire victims, Whittemire said, noting that area residents donated money to the CERT account at the Van Wert County Foundation in the family’s name, while students and school officials at Delphos Jefferson High School, where daughter Renee went to school, also made donations of money, clothing, and other items to the family.

The owners and staff of Westrich Furniture in Delphos were also amazingly helpful, Whittemire said, providing $15,000 worth of new furniture to furnish their replacement rental home for just over half that cost.

Whittemire said he had wisely taken out a renter’s insurance policy from Nationwide Insurance when they began renting, while admitting, though, he was also unwise in not increasing the amount of insurance over the years, leaving the coverage amount inadequate to replace all their household items.

“That’s the thing I want to get to people: Man, don’t procrastinate about insurance, it’s crucial on recovery,” Whittemire said. He said that, within two days of the fire, he had met with an insurance claims person, with full payment from Nationwide coming within two weeks.

While the payment didn’t cover everything that was lost, Whittemire said it was a good investment nevertheless.

“What I paid in, compared to what I got back, was astronomical,” he said. As soon as the family got into its new rental house, Whittemire went back to Nationwide, took out a new policy, and increased the amount of coverage so it fully insured the value of his household goods — definitely a lesson learned.

Although the family was lucky to escape the fire without injury, Whittemire said he also learned another hard lesson for the future — change smoke alarm batteries every year and test the devices regularly. Having operational smoke detectors would have allowed the family a lot more advance warning of the fire, he believes.

In addition to the many donations and kindness from local residents and businesses, Whittemire said his landlord, St. Marys resident Stephen Boyd, was also very supportive to the family — even though he had lost his rental house to the fire. Boyd, a longtime acquaintance, had sought Whittemire out originally to rent from him so Boyd would have someone he could trust to watch over an outbuilding where he had stored some items. Whittemire said Boyd really touched his heart by telling him that Boyd wouldn’t rebuild the house unless Whittemire agreed to come back and rent from him again. 

“Everybody was just so fantastic,” Whittemire said of the many people who provide help and comfort to his family. “I’m just really grateful at how everything has come together for us.”