Post Falls family loses home to fire

POST FALLS — After a fire left their Post Falls home uninhabitable last week, the Rodriguez family is starting over from scratch.

Mariah Rodriguez, a mom of five, was picking up her kids from school with the youngest two children also loaded into the car, when she got a notification from her doorbell camera.

“I saw a man and his son and you could tell on the video they were kind of frantic,” she said.

She returned home to find her house ablaze amid a swarm of fire trucks and patrol cars.

At first, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Then she rushed to tell a police officer that the family’s dog was still inside.

“She ended up passing away,” Rodriguez said, her voice wavering.

Neighbors had alerted authorities to the fire.

“A young citizen saw smoke coming out of the back of the house and had his parents call 911,” said Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Chief Chris Way. “Firefighters were able to be on the scene within minutes.”

Though firefighters managed to contain the blaze mostly within the kitchen, there was smoke damage throughout the house.

“We did battle the wind a little in extinguishing the fire but we were able to make a really good stop on the fire and control the situation within a few minutes,” Way said.

He said the cause of the fire was likely electrical.

For Rodriguez, the initial shock is wearing off and she’s now focused on rebuilding her life with her family.

The children, who are between the ages of 2 and 13, are coping well in the aftermath of the fire.

“They’re so resilient and so strong,” she said. “They’re getting through it. They’re handling it better than I could imagine.”

Rodriguez and her husband, Lucas, visited their former home this week and surveyed the damage. It was painful, she said, particularly seeing their dog’s kennel and the leash still hanging up where they’d left it.

A few items were salvageable, including a table and some of the children’s belongings. Most surprisingly, a binder full of important paperwork, including birth certificates and records related to military service, survived inside a closet.

“That was thrilling to see, because that stuff is replaceable but hard to replace,” Rodriguez said.

The parents and children are staying with family in Hayden for the time being. Rodriguez said the property management company has been accommodating and provided options of other local houses the family can move into.

But, for now, they have almost nothing of their own except the clothes they were wearing when the fire broke out.

“Our furniture is completely gone,” Rodriguez said. “The beds are completely gone. Literally everything is gone.”

Spirit Lake resident Beth Corn, who is Lucas Rodriguez’s cousin, has organized a GoFundMe campaign to help the family pay for household necessities like beds, plates and cups for their new place.

“The world is so chaotic and I want to help everything, but I can’t,” Corn said. “This felt like something that I needed to do. It was like a responsibility of mine to help them.”

Some community members have donated clothes and food to the family since the fire.

“I’m just so thankful for the people in the community that have pooled together and really shown us complete support,” Rodriguez said. “The love that we’ve been shown by people is just absolutely amazing. Thankful is an understatement.”

Rodriguez said the fire put things into perspective.

“You can have your things taken and lose all of it, but what matters most is your family,” she said. “If we have each other — my husband, myself and our kids — we can get through literally anything. That’s what it showed us.”

Info: www.gofundme.com/f/family-of-7-loses-everything-in-tragic-fire

    A fire that began in a kitchen last week left a Post Falls home uninhabitable.
  

    The Rodriguez family’s dog died in a house fire last week. Courtesy photo.