Watching your family home burn to the ground does something to a person: despair, heartbreak, defeat.
But Michele Herring, who lost her home on Bakers Cemetery Road in Cheat Lake on Friday night, resolves to be positive.
“We’re thankful to be alive,” she said Sunday, referring to her mother, her three adult children, her two grandchildren whom she often cared for in the home and herself.
Not to say that the loss of a 250-year-old historic homestead isn’t devastating. She had just left the Baker Farm shortly after 10 p.m. Friday night when an urgent call from a neighbor turned her around. By the time she pulled up to the house, it was “completely engulfed.”
She and family members watched as the house which had been in her family since the mid-1700s was reduced to two stone chimneys, a smoldering basement and a pile of rubble. Herring was told that the cause of the fire may never be determined because of the extent of the destruction.
Herring said that every fire department in Monongalia County and some from Fayette County across the Pennsylvania line responded to the fire. Tankers kept rotating, taking turns drawing water from nearby hydrants.
She is grateful for their work in extinguishing the fire by about 12:30 a.m. and the subsequent rekindlings over the weekend. Her family has always been a great supporter of firefighters, noting that her grandparents donated the land on which the Cheat Lake Volunteer Fire Department was built.
Her family’s generosity and dedication to the community have been returning to her in spades.
“The outpouring from Morgantown has been overwhelming,” Herring said tearfully.
The Red Cross offered support in the early hours Saturday, making shelter, clothing, supplies and counseling available to her and her family.
A family friend, Tayler Howell, launched an effort to raise money “for immediate needs and replacing belongings that were lost in the fire.” To join that effort which had raised about $5,100 as of 3 p.m. Sunday, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-bakers-farm-family-after-devastating-fire.
Much of the community outpouring focused on the Bakers Farm Kennel & Grooming business that sat across the way from the burning structure. The kennel’s distance from the house meant the boarded pets were “not in danger,” and Herring confirmed that “it’s business as usual.”
The kennel is still open from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. daily, providing overnight boarding, day care and grooming services. She offers three different sizes of kennels, plus indoor/outdoor rooms, and turfed play yards. After leaving her nursing career due to medical issues, Herring has put the lion’s share of her focus into running the kennel.
None of the boarded pets was injured Friday night, but one of her own dogs is sporting a cast for a broken leg.
Herring asked, for safety’s sake, that no one walk through her property. Debris and an open smoldering basement make for dangerous conditions. Someone getting hurt would only compound her family’s tragedy.
In her fundraising post, Howell wrote in a heartfelt message, “Passed down for 7 generations, this home was the heart of the family.”
Herring’s strong resolve and positive perspective contend that the home wasn’t the only heart of this family.
