Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 3, 1993 TAG: 9301030022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
THEY SAW MIRACLES IN THE SMOKE
WHEN FIRE DROVE William Bryant and his family from their Southeast Roanoke home early Christmas morning, the blaze destroyed most of their belongings. But it could have taken much more.
Miracles are hard to come by these days, but William Bryant found a few in the ashes of a Christmas Day fire.
First, there was his father, sick with cancer and pneumonia, who had been hospitalized two days earlier. Had he been home when Roanoke firefighters answered the 1:06 a.m. alarm at the Bryants' Tazewell Avenue home, Bryant fears no one would have survived.
"He would not have been able to get out the front door, and we would not have left him," Bryant said.
Bryant, 41, was upstairs watching television, and his sister, Rose Weaver, 45, was wrapping presents in another upstairs room, when their mother, Edna Bryant, called to them from downstairs, saying she smelled smoke. Rose Weaver's grandson, 13-month-old Cody, was asleep upstairs.
"It seems like the stove had started smoking," he said. "There was no alarm in her voice."
But just then, Edna Bryant opened the basement door and smoke began billowing through the house. "She said, `Oh my God, get out of here, the house is on fire!' " William Bryant recalled.
As the house filled with black smoke, Weaver had just enough time to grab the baby and flee. William Bryant, shoeless and clad only in pajamas, picked up his portable phone, dialing 911 as he raced down the stairs and into the chilly night.
He was able to save one of the family dogs, Gizmo, but two others, a mixed poodle, Daisy, and a Westminster terrier, Sweetiepie, perished in the blaze.
Bryant said his mother had reluctantly left her husband at the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center and returned home to begin preparations for their Christmas Day meal and the dozens of family and friends that were expected.
"He begged Mama to stay with him Christmas Eve," reminding her that it was the first Christmas Eve in 53 years that they would be apart, Bryant recalled.
But Bryant said it was fortuitous - in short, another Christmas miracle - that his mother decided to come home.
"We would not have gotten out if she hadn't hollered," Bryant said. "She said there was just something that told her she ought to go home that night. She's the one who sounded the alarm and told us to get out of the house."
The fire apparently was ignited when sparks from a hole in the basement flue ignited some wooden shelving, said Paul Shell, acting district chief on the night of the blaze. Flames spread through the basement and attacked the interior and exterior walls, he said.
Damages were estimated at about $35,000 to the home and $17,000 to the contents.
"It's pretty much destroyed," said Shell. "There are some things that are salvageable, but it's blackened throughout the house. It's going to take total renovation."
William Bryant said the family had about $45,000 in insurance on the house and contents, far less than an insurance adjuster estimated it would cost to rebuild the same type of home.
Neighbors took the family in that night, although no one got any sleep, Bryant said. Firefighters remained on the scene until about 6 Christmas morning.
The American Red Cross has provided some clothing for the family. Bryant, his sister and her grandson are living with an aunt until the family can find a new home. Bryant said his mother, 69, is staying with her husband at the hospital.
The frame of the two-story home remains standing, and Bryant said he was able to partially board up the residence and lock the door, but thieves already have carted away the washer and dryer and other goods that firefighters removed from the house and placed near the street.
"Glass in the front door is starting to fall out," he said. "It just hurts so bad when you go in there and look."
The fire claimed the Christmas dinner, of course, including a 23-pound ham and 22-pound turkey that already had been cooked. Firefighters saved what gifts they could, placing them on the sofa under a sheet as they watered down the home.
"I had Christmas dinner cooked," Edna Bryant said. "But after the fire I don't think anybody wanted any dinner."
One present was completely untouched by flames or smoke: a Teddy Ruxpin bear that had been stored under the table for Cody.
"The box didn't even smell like smoke," William Bryant said.