THOMASTON (March 4): Tim Couch, his wife, Becca, and their 3-year-old daughter were relaxing in their living room Sunday night when they noticed an orange glow around the pipe between the wood stove that heated the house and its chimney. Couch looked around and saw smoke in the basement.
"I went to check it out and it looked like a cleanout had blown out; stuff was falling out of the chimney," Couch said Tuesday. "I had gone to the basement with a fire extinguisher and exhausted that and ran up and told Becca. She called 911 and got my daughter and my dog out."
They also moved the family cat to the garage, he said, where it was later found, alive and safe, by firefighters.
I grabbed a hose from the garage and hooked it up to a washing machine outlet," Couch said. "I pulled the smoke pipe off the wood stove where it goes into the chimney to get a hose down the chimney."
When that failed to stop the smoke that was beginning to fill the house, Couch grabbed the hose to run back down the cellar stairs, but decided not to go through the inside. "I ran around back and kicked out the cellar door, but there was too much for me to handle," he said. "After that it was a waiting game."
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He said it was hard to explain that history after he returned to the United States, and the transition has been difficult. "The time-space gap between surreal and shock is shorter," he said. "Your world looks different."
"My wife is incredible," he said. "Inside the walls of my home it’s a good place. Outside the walls it's confusing."
Couch said he was able to connect to life in his house, but connecting to the town and community has been difficult. "We chose to be here," he said.
"When you lose that feeling of home it’s a hard thing to get back," Couch said of the transition back from wartime.
He said the outpouring of support the family has received since Sunday has transformed his relationship with his family, friends and neighbors.
"The phone calls instantly connected me back to what I'd lost," he said. "It's not easy for a guy to come back from a war and say 'I need help.' The things you couldn't ask for before or didn't know you needed all came back in one shot." Couch said he has received offers of food, shelter and support in the past few days.
"It was a tough way to take a softening blow, but it's the best I've felt since I've come home," he said.
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One of our own from Maine. It's sad how he lost his house, but at the same time he's found himself and his community again.
One of the firefighters that was hurt trying to save his home is a friend of mine. How about some of those fabulous DU vibes for both families in their recovery....:loveya:
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