"It Happened to Me"

Shirley Carnal, of Arizona, escaped a fire in her home after her dog woke her up and wouldn't let her sleep. She came into the living room to find the couch in flames. After the fire, only the floor and outside walls were left standing.

The Fire

"I did have smoke alarms, but I had taken the batteries out a week before because I had fried some bacon, and it kept setting them off. Then in the middle of the night, the dog kept whining and getting on the bed, and he would not stop, so I got up. I got to the living room and saw a wall of flame.

"So I grabbed water and put it on the couch, but I shouldn't have stayed. The fire spread so fast. I called 911 and got out of the house. By that time, the whole living room was engulfed. I got out of here with a flannel nightgown and some socks.

"If it hadn't been for the dog, I would have slept right through it. He just would not let me sleep."

On Recovery

"It took me three days to come back into the house after the fire. When I first walked in, I started shaking. No words can describe what you feel when you first walk in after living in a place for 20 years and there is nothing left but charred walls and burnt up furniture and carpeting.

"The only thing left standing was the floor and the outside walls. It's the most horrendous thing to walk into a building after a fire. Everything is gone. And you think to yourself 'How am I going to do this? How am I going to replace all this stuff?'

"It was too tremendous for one person to handle. You are standing here looking at the stuff you have gathered all your life and now there is nothing. I managed to salvage a set of my mother's bowls. My brother and I bought her those in 1945. And then they found my camera, purse and my keys hanging in my bedroom. That was all I had left.

"I had to buy curtains, blinds, had to pick out cabinets, tile, and furniture. I didn't replace half of what I should. I just couldn't. I didn't have the energy. I couldn't get my diabetes under control. I was 66 years old. It was the middle of June and 110ºF in Phoenix.

"That's the thing with older people when they have a fire. You do the inventory list. Then the insurance company sends you a check, but it's so hard to replace it all."

On the Loss of Family Possessions

"The things that you had that were in places you could go to blindfolded — all of a sudden they aren't there anymore. It's over here instead. It's a big change. Mother had a meat grinder. I was down in the cupboard looking for it. Then I realized it was gone.

"There were so many things that had gone on in this family. The whole family had gone fishing over Thanksgiving, and they had a ledger from all of our fishing trips, from 1979 on. It can never be replaced.

"I still feel the emotion of it. You go to look for something, and then you remember it was in the fire. I had ribbons that I use in my hair. I look for a special one, and it's not there. And Mother's mirror, a little hand mirror she had for years and years since I was a little girl. If I sit and think about these things, it drives me crazy."