Family humbled by outpouring of support after house fire

CLARKS GROVE — Lying down with her 7-year-old daughter at bedtime Sunday night, Clarks Grove resident Heather Earl heard a crunching noise.

At first she said she thought it was the family’s dog chewing on something, but then after she called out to the dog to stop, the noise continued.

She came out into the hallway, found the dog laying innocently on the floor and shortly after realized it wasn’t the dog making the noise, but a fire smoldering between the walls of her family’s home.

What happened in the minutes and hours that followed is an experience Earl and her husband, Todd, said has forever changed their lives. Though they ultimately lost their house and most of their belongings that night, the couple said the fire has reminded them of the good in the community and all they have to be grateful for.

“It makes me sad, but in the big picture it doesn’t matter,” Heather Earl said. “We are blessed by God that our family is safe.”

‘We have what matters’

Eight minutes.

That’s the amount of time the Earls estimated passed from the time they first discovered the smoldering fire to the time they knew it was no longer safe to be in the house.

As soon as Heather Earl realized there was a fire in the family’s home, she said she yelled out to her husband, who was in another room with their son Brendan.

The couple told their three children — Brendan, 11, Peyton, 9, and Jordyn, 7 — to get dressed, and they quickly helped them get out of the house. The family’s dog and cat also survived.

Todd Earl, a former volunteer firefighter for two years in Mankato and the current chief deputy for the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office, said he has seen a lot in his time in public service, but he has never seen sheetrock glow red like it did that day.

After they got the children out of the house, he said he went back into the house twice to grab a few more belongings. Some of the items the family saved included work laptops, work keys, his work pistol, Heather Earl’s purse and some rifles. After that, they knew for safety reasons they couldn’t go back in.

When firefighters arrived — from Clarks Grove, Geneva, Hollandale, Albert Lea and Ellendale — they asked the family if there were things they could retrieve for them, grabbing as many photos and any other items that might be of value that they could.

One of the items saved was a baseball glove given to Todd Earl on his birthday in 1976. The glove belonged to his grandfather and was given to him by his parents after his grandfather passed away. There is also a challenge coin he received from a dispatcher who worked during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

Many other heirlooms and family keepsakes were damaged beyond repair, along with the family’s clothes, toys and other personal belongings, and they are still sorting through to see if any items are salvageable.

“Yes, it’s tough. Yes, it’s stressful,” said Heather Earl, an instructor at Riverland Community College. “But we have what matters.”

The fire ultimately spread through a large portion of the roof, causing the roof to collapse, and the rest of the house sustained major smoke and water damage.

The main level of the home is covered with six to 10 inches of fallen insulation that has become caked with water and other debris. The basement of the home, though not burned, was flooded and has received major water damage.

Todd Earl said the fire marshal told the family the fire could have been smoldering for hours and was caused from the heat that emanated from the chimney of their wood-burning stove. He likened it to a marshmallow next to heat.

“We had been using this thing for about 17 years and never had a problem,” he said of the stove.

An outpouring of support

Starting the night of the fire and continuing in the days since, the couple said they had been blessed by support from neighbors, friends, co-workers and even strangers, who have offered to help their family.

The kindness started the night of the fire, when their neighbors came over with blankets for them and offered for them to stay warm in their homes.

Another neighbor came and offered to pray with them.

Todd Earl’s friends and co-workers through the law enforcement and firefighter community did all they could to save their belongings the night of the fire and have continued to offer strength to the family in the days since.

A friend and co-worker through the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office, Jeremiah Mickelson, and his wife, Lindsey, immediately offered to let the family stay at their house. After three nights there, the family then moved into a house that belonged to another friend, Katie Pestorious, who had just moved her family out of that house and into another.

Another deputy started a GoFundMe page for the family, which as of Friday afternoon had raised $10,000. There were others who collected clothes, gift cards, money, toys and stuffed animals for the children and who have given meals. Lakeview Elementary School furnished backpacks for the children.

Their church family at Grace Lutheran Church has also offered immediate and ongoing support.

“It’s not the stuff (we lost). It’s not the house. It’s what people are doing. That’s what gets me choked up,” Todd Earl said.

Both said they have received message after message of people asking how they can help, and they don’t know how to thank everyone who has helped them in the last week.

“I have seen the best of Freeborn County that I ever have,” Todd Earl said. “I have been a cop for many years, and usually I see the worst. It’s brought back a lot of faith to me.”

Aside from the financial and physical support they have received, they said they are also grateful for the people who have helped with their children and others who have offered moral support.

Some children have even given their own toys to make sure the Earl family’s three children have something to play with.

“It blows us away — the love,” Heather Earl said. “We are beyond thankful.”

As they look to the future, the couple said they are thinking about ways to pay the kindness forward.

They encouraged people who may still want to give to their family, to instead give to whatever their favorite charity might be. They talked of the many people around Freeborn County in need.

They specifically mentioned the United Way of Freeborn County, the Salvation Army and the local counselors at the schools who would know of people who could be helped.

Otherwise, they could offer a random act of kindness in the community.

“We are blessed,” Heather Earl said. “We are OK.”