For more than 30 years as a newspaper reporter and broadcast journalist,
Ernie Ford covered hundreds of fires. So when the smell of smoke drifted in
through the vents of his car on a Saturday afternoon driving back from
Cloverdale, Ford's reporter instincts kicked in.
"I smell smoke, there's
a fire somewhere," he told his sister, Janice. "Let's go find it." As Ford drove
toward Greencastle he saw the smoke billowing in the air. "My god, that's pretty
close to our house," he said as he turned onto Hanna Street. "My god, it is my
house."
For some reason, the journalist in him did not let go. "My
training took over and I became dispassionate," Ford said. "If I had a pad and
pencil, I probably would have started taking notes."
Ford's wife Linda
joined him on the street and the couple watched three fire departments attempt
to dampen the fire with thousands of gallons of water. But the 76-year-old wood
burned easily, and flames eventually consumed the entire upstairs portion of the
home. In the end, the house at 316 E. Hanna St. was a near total loss.
This week, after four months of apartment living, the Fords are moving
back into their home. "It's a 2001 house, with a 1925 foundation,' Ford said.
The Fords actually did their best to recreate their old home. Without
blueprints, they had to rely on their memory for the rebuilding. The outside
design and architecture is almost the same, and even though the inside still
echoes from the lack of new furniture, the Fords are glad to be back.
"It's a neighborhood we love," said Linda. "There are people who don't
like to live by a college (DePauw University), but I find it delightful." The
Fords said that during the fire, they were amazed by the support of the
community. Within minutes, people not only came to see the fire, but also
console the Fords. The Alpha Phi sorority next door even offered a place for
them to stay for the night. Ernie pulls out a whole stack of cards from under
his desk in the book shop. They are all letters of support and concern. "Some of
these were from people we hardly knew," he said.
After the firefighters
put out the fire and the house lay destroyed, the feelings of what happened
began to sink in, according to the Fords.
"You realize that all you have
is the clothes on your back," said Ernie. "You have to buy a toothbrush, a comb
... everything you take for granted having everyday."
That night the
Fords stayed at the Walden Inn. Exhausted and overwhelmed by the day's
experience, Ernie had a troubled night's sleep. "I dreamt that the police had
claimed it was arson," he said. "And I was running around trying to to find
witnesses."
Perhaps the toughest part for the Fords, was to walk through
the burned-out house a few days later.
"It was awful," said Linda.
"You'd pick up things and realize that you couldn't save it. It would just be a
piece of charred something."
The fire and heat transformed plastic
collectible mugs to just a lump, the water used to fight the fire filled the
basement like a swimming pool and the entire upstairs southeast corner was gone.
While pushing aside ashes and soaked items Linda came across a wooden
box. The sides were heavily charred, but when she opened it, the contents were
undamaged. Inside were her children's grade school projects, scrapbooks and a
copy of her fatheršs memoirs.
"It amazes me," she said, "because this
was the stuff that was really irreplaceable."
Ernie looked around to see
his computer to be just a metal frame and four of his Emmy awards for his
investigative reporting were just globs of plastic and metal. And yet, back in a
corner, he found the 1940s and 1950s World Series tickets his father-in-law had
given him.
"We'd find stuff that you never thought would have survived."
Ernie said "It may have been the only thing that kept us sane when we went back
into the house."
After saving as much as they could from the home, it
took 12 dumpsters to haul away the rest of the house. Only the foundation
remained. But it is upon that foundation that the Fords have rebuilt and started
their new home.