By Michael A. Fuoco
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 P.G. Publishing Co.
Their Butler County residences were destroyed by fire Sunday and many lost all they owned, but yesterday, most of the 137 senior citizens displaced from the Concordia Haven Apartments considered their lives blessed.
Yes, they felt a sense of loss for the irreplaceable items of lives lived long, but more so they gave thanks that not one of their friends and neighbors who rented apartments in the three-story, brick independent living facility suffered even a scratch in the raging inferno.
There’s been no ruling of a definitive cause, but Cpl. Jeff Crede, the state police fire marshal, said the fire, reported at 11:35 a.m., is believed to have started in a roof-area electrical room on the facility’s east side.
Cpl. Crede, who estimated damage at more than $10 million, said the blaze spread through the common roof, destroying it and the entire third floor of the 114-unit building at 112 Marwood Road, Winfield. Other floors primarily incurred heavy smoke and water damage.
“Nobody was even hurt,” marveled Jim Arner, who turned 83 Friday — the average age of his fellow residents. “That’s the important thing. There’s the sense we have each other and we’re the same way we were -- healthy.”
Mr. Arner, a Brackenridge native, was among about 50 people who spent Sunday night with relatives but returned to Concordia Lutheran Ministries’ sprawling 167-acre campus in Winfield yesterday morning to move into living quarters in the Lund Care Center. The brand-new facility is only a couple hundred yards away from their former homes where the smell of smoke still hung.
Another 54 people had stayed at the new facility overnight Sunday, and more of the remaining 33 residents were expected to move there soon.
“I came right back here,” said Mr. Arner, who arrived at 7 a.m. “This is home. We are all together again. We’re all back home. This whole place is like a second family. It’s a very caring place.”
Indeed, much as banners throughout the campus proclaim “We Put Our Faith in Caring,” the residents’ needs were being cared for.
The on-site pharmacy was making sure everyone had their medications. Keith Frndak, president and chief executive officer of Concordia Lutheran Ministries, was meeting twice daily with residents to answer questions. And staff also was helping residents file claims if they had renter’s insurance and with other needs, Concordia spokeswoman Shirley Freyer said.
Moreover, hospitals have donated beds and bedding. Local residents have dropped off so much clothing that a dozen volunteers were called on to sort the sweaters, shirts, pants, blouses and coats that filled the new facility’s board room.
The Lund facility was set to open next week with the transfer of about 200 assisted-living and skilled-nursing residents from another nearby building. But that move, which wasn’t crucial, is now delayed, Ms. Freyer said.
She added that a new independent living facility will be built once the fire-gutted structure is demolished.
The fact the displaced residents were able to move into an empty facility that had been inspected and permitted for residency was yet another blessing to be found amid the burned ruins, she noted.
“It seems like God really does provide, doesn’t it?” she said.
Echoing that theme, the Rev. Barry Keurulainen of St. Luke Lutheran Church in Winfield sought to provide solace, reading to residents from Psalm 46, which begins: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
He found the residents to be just fine.
“Their faith is just so solid. ... All of this has shaken them but not their relationship with God,” he said.
Ms. Freyer agreed: “I have been taught a stronger faith because of the residents. One woman said she was thinking of downsizing and the Lord did it for her. Another resident said, ‘We’ve been through worse.’ ”
Mr. Arner may be among those who could make that claim. The Navy veteran participated in nine South Pacific invasions during World War II, including Iwo Jima, where he was deployed for 36 days.
That may be part of the reason Mr. Arner could say yesterday that during the eight years he’s lived at Concordia, “I haven’t had a bad day yet.”
He conceded that Sunday “was a little trying” when, like many other residents, he returned from church to find the apartment building in flames.
But even as he watched his third-floor apartment burn, destroying irreplaceable items such as a log of every Navy ship he had sailed on during the war, he thanked God once he learned Dorothy, his wife of 60 years, who resides in the assisted-living facility, and of all his fellow residents were safe.
Given that outcome, Mr. Arner said, he didn’t mind that the blue jeans, green jersey and blue jacket he wore were, for now, the only clothes he owned.
Then he was off to visit his wife.