Senior, displaced by fire, recounts her horrific experiences

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The Waltons, cherished members of the Easton community, faced a great loss last month with their home catching fire. Senior Josie Walton, the youngest of the Walton children, shared some of the details from that fateful December evening.

“I just woke up and my room was completely full of thick white smoke so I couldn’t see anything and then I ran to my window and stuck my head out because I couldn’t breathe,” she said, trying to remember the vivid details. “When I opened the door the smoke all flooded in the hallway and set off the alarm.”

When hearing that the fire in fact started in Josie’s room the obvious question was: How did the fire start?

“The firefighters said that the cause of it was an electrical fire or something. They’re not exactly sure what it was. But the fire started right near my bed right near where I was sleeping. So scary. They said it started on my bed so either my laptop or those outlet extensions that have 3 other outlets on it might’ve been the cause. I think it was my computer because my computer was really old.”

Josie discussed how the fire in her room had not started until she got out of the room thankfully. She expressed how she was very upset that very moment because she assumed she did something to cause the fire to start. While the fire was contained to her room the damage that was done to her home was definitely more extensive.

“Everything in my room was completely vaporized. My sisters’ rooms were fine but all their stuff was completely destroyed. We can’t use anything from the second floor everything has to be replaced. Because the smoke damage was so insane, the whole upstairs of my house was black even though the fire didn’t get to their rooms. All the stuff in the other rooms are there but it doesn’t work and everything’s covered in just black.

And the fire was not the only thing that damaged her home. When the fire was being put out the water from the hoses also caused significant water damage to the first floor of the house. While no one was hurt by the fire, the Waltons cannot move back in as of yet.

“We stayed in a hotel for a week or two, the Residence Inn,  and then my parents wanted to get a condo because it’s gonna be a year before we can move back in.”

Although the fire is done and the damage has settled, this process for the Waltons is far from done. They need to make a list of the things lost in the fire for insurance, work towards fixing their home, and get back on track with their day-to-day lives. According to Josie, that last issue is what she is struggling most with.

“Before this happened this had been the best year of my life academically and now it’s just so awful. I was trying so hard the whole year and I was doing really well and now I just have a weird different mindset and I just don’t really care about anything and it just sucks.”

While any event like this is bound to take a toll on anyone’s life Josie is thankful for the flexibility her teachers have shown her and her friends who have been in her corner throughout this process.

“My friends have been amazing they gave me so much stuff they gave me this photo album cause I lost all my photos. And people in Easton have donated so many clothes and money and gift cards to my parents which was really helpful cause I literally had like zero clothes after that happened.”

Overall, this has been a heartbreaking situation for the Walton family but with the help of loved ones and the community hopefully, they will be back on their feet soon. Josie has managed to find the silver lining from this event.

“I’m definitely going to be a really resilient adult cause this sucks but it really taught me a lot about people and human nature and I think people are really kind and giving after this happened.”