After Fire, Couple Travels A Long Road Back Home

When the smoke cleared, the news cameras left, and the fire department headed back to the station, the journey for Katherine and Mark Van Den Berg was just beginning.

The Van Den Bergs' home was during one of the first big storms of the summer. Mark Van Den Berg was dozing in the living room when a loud boom woke him. The lightning hit a metal ventilation pipe on the roof and set the attic and bathroom ablaze.

Fortunately, both Mark and Katherine exited the home, and watched as firefighters scaled the home and sawed two holes in the roof to extinguish the fire.

“It sounded like an atomic bomb went off. It was the loudest crash you could imagine. I was sleeping in the living room and it woke me up,” Mark Van Den Berg said the day of the fire. “My wife saw it and said the entire other side of the street lit up — the entire sky lit up.”

So often, these incidents occur and are quickly forgotten by those that photograph and document the event. However, for the Van Den Bergs, June 6 marked the beginning of an exhaustive 85-day journey just to return to their home.

“We had television stations in the back, and one outlet said they would repair the roof and we’d be right back into our home,” Katherine said. “That wasn’t the case. I’m just happy we were home because it could have been a lot worse.”

After the blaze was extinguished, the Van Den Bergs were told to grab enough clothing for about two weeks. The rest — in fact everything made of cloth in the home — would be removed and taken to a cleaner. They left their home behind and brought their two cats with them to stay in a Super 8 motel. They stayed there for 16 days.

The rest of their clothes were cleaned, placed in bags, and cataloged with Martinizing. If they wanted to wear something different, they placed an order and their clothes were delivered.

In the meantime, industrial blowers were running constantly in the home to dry out the walls and floors to prevent mold. Gallons of water from the fire hoses had soaked into the house and buckled the wood floors. Virtually every possession was removed from the home, and all the furniture was taken out. All the electronics were taken to a cleaner to repair smoke damage.

“It was kind of freaky because they were going through all of your things,” Katherine Van Den Berg said. “They kept track of all our belongings in 13-page catalog.”

From the outside, it looked as though the house was undamaged. However, assessors went through the home and nearly every wall was marked “tear down.” In fact, every wall in the home was torn down and rebuilt except two bedrooms. All the floors were ripped up and removed. The Van Den Bergs became strangers in their own home.

After a 16-day stint in a motel, they were relocated to a furnished apartment. As homeowners, they still needed to visit to cut the grass and landscape. A few times the couple cooked out, but needed to head back to the apartment by day’s end.

“It was overwhelming at times,” Katherine said. “It was really the lost summer. I really started tearing up when they started taking everything away.”

They say lightning won’t strike the same place twice, but while they were in the process of moving and rebuilding it nearly did. A month after their home was struck, their neighbor’s Emerald Ash was struck by lightning and needed to be torn down. The home was directly across the street from the Van Den Bergs.

Mark said they spent that lost summer at . Every week new floors, fixtures and other home goods needed to be purchased to continue rebuilding their home.

“It was like building a brand new house,” Mark said. “There’s nothing in here that’s original other than the wooden frame behind the walls.”

Total damage to the home was roughly $65,000, and that just includes some renovation costs. The Van Den Bergs have yet to get the figures for the cost of replacing furniture and other items. Their home insurance will cover most of the costs.

Just about a month ago, the Van Den Bergs finally returned to their home after spending the summer rising from the ashes.

“The first night we were home I finally lost it and the emotions flooded in,” Katherine Van Den Berg said. “I hadn’t cried since the beginning of all this, but when I saw our two cats curl up next to us while we watched a movie, I knew we were finally home.”

Although the process was tiring and frustrating at times, Katherine said she and Mark are forever grateful for the job the Menomonee Falls Fire Department did to save their home, and all the other businesses and organizations that helped them get on their feet.