The school teacher lost nearly everything Saturday night.

The fire that ate through Carol Alvarez’s house stole her shelter, her car and her best friend of 18 years.

“I didn’t know where to begin,” said the West Junior High resource room teacher.

Fire officials said the blaze at her home at 2102 Melholland Drive caused $90,000 in damage. But what does that number, $90,000, really mean?

For Alvarez, it means having to start her life over with precious little.

During her days since the fire, Alvarez admits she’s been walking around in a daze, unable to focus on much.

But now, at one of the lowest points in her life, Alvarez’s friends, co-workers and strangers have reached out to help her put her life back together.

The fire

It was just after 8 p.m. Saturday. Alvarez was sitting downstairs with her pets when she saw the flames begin rising up the walls.

Suddenly, her house filled with smoke as the walls burned inside out. It was nothing she could use an extinguisher on, she said. It was as if the fire began somewhere deep within the house and suddenly sprang to life.

“We saw the fire going up,” she said.

Carol Alvarez looks over some school papers that were charred in the fire that destroyed her home on Melholland Drive Saturday. Alvarez, a resource room teacher at West Junior High School, says the Lawrence community has been very helpful in getting her back on her feet.

Alvarez said insurance company investigator Stephen Thompson said it was an electrical problem that started the blaze. Likely, she said, a power strip shorted and sent sparks through the house.

She raced outside as the flames spread from the first floor to the second. By the time firefighters arrived, it was too late to go inside.

A second fire alarm was sounded as the flames chased firefighters outdoors. From there, they used ladders and hoses to keep the rising fire at bay.

But by then, the damage was done. The house was gutted, Alvarez said. No walls. No ceiling. Just torched wood and ashes.

And a loss, to her, much greater than mere property.

Family friend

When fire began consuming the walls of the home, Charlie couldn’t tell where to go.

He was 18, a Scottish terrier who for years had been blind and deaf. But Alvarez said he wasn’t a sickly dog; he walked with a hop in his step.

“He wasn’t an old dog,” Alvarez said. “It wasn’t like he was on his last legs.”

For Alvarez, Charlie was the oldest member of her family at home. Her pets – she has another dog and two cats – mean the world to her, she said. But Charlie, always nearby, was her boy, her closest friend.

On Saturday night, when Alvarez and her other pets ran for the back door, Charlie followed. He stayed by her leg like always as he found his way to safety.

But the noise, the heat and panic, must have confused him, Alvarez said.

Moments later, the little blind dog darted back into the house. With no leg to hang on to, he apparently went for the one thing he could smell, that seemed familiar: his food and water dishes.

But the dishes were in the heart of the blaze. As the fire began to burn the ceiling, the section above Charlie collapsed and fell to the floor.

Suddenly, her friend was gone.

In the days after the fire, Alvarez lacked the strength to get his body from the house, she said. The insurance company investigators, as an act of kindness, offered to get Charlie’s body out for her.

So Wednesday morning, an insurance inspector brought Charlie’s body out in a black plastic bag and set it outside. Alvarez sat down next to the bag and reached out, resting her hand on her boy one last time.

She still hasn’t found the body of another pet, a cat who couldn’t find the way to safety.

Alvarez shares a moment with her dog Charlie, who was deaf and blind and who didn't survive Saturday's fire at her house. An insurance investigator retrieved Charlie's body from the burned structure on Wednesday.

Talking about her lost friend, Alvarez fought back tears. For two days, her other dog wouldn’t eat. Now, he barely nibbles at his food, she said, lost in a world without his sidekicks.

“I think he just misses his friends,” she said.

Help arrives

While the fire crews smothered the last smoldering embers, Lawrence Red Cross officials showed up to offer Alvarez help, director Jane Blocher said.

“We gave her the works,” she said.

The works included three nights at the Holidome, vouchers for clothing and food – and support when Alvarez and her family were searching for answers.

“I was in such a daze, and they were so helpful,” Alvarez said. “They were there in 10 minutes.”

So for three nights, the Red Cross provided Alvarez shelter when she had none. It wasn’t a long-term fix, Alvarez said. She’s still searching for a place to stay.

But after a tragic night, Alvarez said she welcomed whatever support might come.

Carol Alvarez, a teacher at West Junior High School, left, lost her home at 2102 Mellholland Drive over the weekend. On Wednesday morning, Alvarez and private fire investigator Stephen Thompson, who works for American Family Insurance, talked about the possible cause after Thompson came out of the house with a charred powerstrip.

Alvarez said the found help elsewhere, too. A neighbor who was still recovering from a house damaged in this month’s microburst came over Saturday night to offer tips on what she should do.

More help came the next day. Myron Melton, the principal at West, showed up at her house Sunday morning, asking what he could do to help.

“She wasn’t sure what her needs were going to be,” Melton said.

She knew insurance would cover some of what was damaged in the fire. But she lost clothes, furniture, kitchen supplies – the things she said she couldn’t easily replace.

“I don’t know what all will be covered,” she said. “We’re looking into options. We’re still real unfocused on that.”

Rebuilding

On Wednesday afternoon, Alvarez sat on a tree stump outside her charred house.

Two contractors walked about the home with ladders and tape measures, trying to estimate the cost of rebuilding.

The process, she said, could take a year to finish.

In the meantime, she’ll look for a home to rent, something she can lease month-to-month until her home is ready.

Carol Alvarez and private fire investigator Stephen Thompson, who works for American Family Insurance, talk about the possible causes of the fire as Thompson comes out of the house with a charred power strip.

But her life will get back on track today,she said, when she gets back to teaching kids at West Junior High.

It will be a refreshing change from the uncertainty of the past few days, she said.

“I’m anxious to try to get some normalcy,” Alvarez said.

When she gets there, she’ll be greeted by co-workers who, since Sunday afternoon, have been planning ways to help their fellow teacher get back on her feet.

“We were all just devastated for her,” teacher Mary Parkinson said.

Parkinson works with Alvarez in the special education department at the school, and said that her co-workers in the resource room and elsewhere are thrilled to have her back.

They are also thrilled to help in any way they can, Parkinson said.

Melton called a staff meeting Monday to figure out what they could do for Alvarez.

Buying clothing wasn’t right, he said. When he spoke to Alvarez on Sunday afternoon, she wasn’t sure what she would need.

“At that point, all she had were the clothes on her back,” he said.

So Melton planned a building-wide fundraiser to provide gift cards to local businesses. The money will come from donations and a portion of a collective teachers fund that is often used for emergencies.

Plus, Deerfield School, where Alvarez used to work, will chip in what they can, too, said Joan Parr, co-chairwoman of the West Junior High social committee.

“We feel a real sense of community,” Parr said. “If somebody needs help, we try to do what we can.”

Alvarez said the outpouring has come from all over Lawrence. Parents have been supportive. The Red Cross, she said, has been amazing.

Living here in Lawrence made the difference.

“I don’t think it would have been the same in another town,” she said.

At her home Wednesday, her life still sat in shambles before her. But for four days, she has seen the caring, giving side of her community that she said she never understood existed.

Alvarez knows life will get back to normal eventually. The help she has already received has allowed her to see that, she said, even through walls of flames.

“Sometimes it takes a tragedy to see how many wonderful people there are in Lawrence,” she said.