A Glen Arbor family is searching for a new home and rebuilding their lives after an early morning fire last week destroyed the Oak Street building they had called home for nearly six years.
The fire broke out around 2 a.m. June 2 in the building across from River Club Glen Arbor. Jessica Moers, who lived in the lower unit with her fiance, Robb Semple, and three children, said the family escaped with little more than the clothes they were wearing. The building housed a second apartment upstairs and its occupants also escaped safely.
Moers had been reading in bed when she heard what sounded like someone moving around in the pantry. Thinking one of her children might be awake, she got up to investigate. Instead, she saw ash floating through the hallway and an unfamiliar glow at the far end.
“Something made me realize, ‘oh my God, it’s a fire,’” she said.
Within moments, Moers was running though the home, waking her children and screaming warnings as smoke began to spread. She ran toward the room where her eldest daughter was sleeping while Semple called 911 and rushed to grab a fire extinguisher from his work van.
“I kind of had frozen because it was finally coming together…this is real,” Moers recalled. “It seemed like a bad dream.”
She was able to get all three kids to safety outside before realizing that the occupants of the upstairs apartment were still inside. She began pounding on the side of the house until they awoke and escaped.
Several fire departments responded to the call and worked through the night to contain the blaze. The building was fully engulfed by the time first responders made it to the scene, and while the structure was a total loss, no injuries were reported.
The building had once been home to a historical laundromat before being bought by Semple and his mother, and has been home to many people through the years.
The family lost phones, medications, glasses and contacts, important documents, furniture, clothing and family keepsakes. Aside from a few toys that happened to be outside, nearly everything was destroyed.
“We walked out with the clothing on our backs,” Moers said.
The Glen Lake Fire Department was unable to comment on the cause of the fire at this time as the investigation is still ongoing.
In the days since, the family has been replacing the basics and working to find temporary housing along with just trying to adjust to their new reality.
“It’s definitely been challenging… and you just want to normalize things for your children, but also when do you as a parent or an adult have time to try and navigate things yourself,” she said and added that one of the hardest things to navigate has been guilt. “The ups and downs of, okay you survived, your family survived, but then you have the aftermath of what happened and the trauma of your children and my own trauma. You think of personal things you lost like heirlooms, but then you have that guilt again like, should it even matter.”
Ideally, the family wants to stay in Leelanau County if not in Glen Arbor itself, but have run into trouble finding somewhere to stay long term since many rentals are already booked for the summer season or out of budget. For now, they have been able to temporarily stay with family in the area.
The community support has come in strong and helped the Moers family get through the last week. Friends and employers have donated meals, clothes, gift cards and other necessities but housing remains one of their most urgent needs.
Both the Moers and her neighbor Mara Miller have set up GoFundMe accounts for any donations to help with expenses.
Moers: https://gofund. me/417bd243f Miller: https://gofund. me/4a25c6763
