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Account set up for Box Elder family that lost home in fire
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FarkA Box Elder family struggled through a rollercoaster wave of emotions in the week after a Monday morning fire leveled their garage and destroyed their home. The LaCuran-Hayes family was roused from sleep at 5 a.m. by a neighbor who spotted the fire on her way to work in Rapid City.
“She saw the fire in our garage. She came to our house and was banging on doors, waking us up,” said Sheleen LaCuran, her voice cracking as she recalled the chaotic morning. “I don’t even know who she was, it was all so chaotic.”
Today (Christmas Eve), LaCuran and Robert Hayes are renting a car large enough to hold their family of three daughters, 13 and two 16-year-olds, and two sons, 15 and 11. Their insurance adjuster will fly from Florida on Dec. 26, but a salvage company has given the family little hope of recovering any of their furnishings, house wares, bedding or clothing from the home because of extensive smoke and water damage.
Yet it could have been so much worse, she said.
“Who knows how long it would have taken us to realize there was a fire. … I’m just glad that everybody is OK,” LaCuran said before breaking into tears.
With their Christmas tree and gifts beneath it burned to cinders, the roof to their home gone over half of the house after the fire went into the attic, loss of the family’s pet dog, three vehicles burned to the metal framework and a garage leveled, it is hard to imagine how anything could be worse.
Yet the neighborhood opened its doors to the family, offering food, warmth, places for the family’s three cats, clothing and a welcome for Christmas.
“People have been so helpful and supportive. It’s helped us get a sense of direction and to stay strong,” LaCuran said.
Friends and family members have opened an account for the Box Elder family, whose home was destroyed by a Monday morning fire. People can donate checks or cash to the Sheleen LaCuran and Robert Hayes family at any of the branches at Great Western Bank.
Donations of furniture, appliances, beds, bedding, etc., can be dropped off at Big Sky Upholstery from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays at 906 E. Watertown, behind Taco Bell on East North Street.
Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com.
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