Indahl Family
Image tucking your kids into bed one minute, and standing outside in the freezing cold the next watching your house go up in flames. For the Indahl family this wasn't a late night movie, it was very much their reality.
The Indahl family owned a 3 bedroom, two story rambler with an attached garage. Heidi and Tim were in the midst of planning a big move to Utah that coming July to further Tim's education. They were the pround parents of three kids and two pets. Everything they did and stood for, revolved around faith and family. Heidi, a former teacher, decided to home school thier kids. It was March 22nd, 2010 when Tim and Heidi did one final check on the kids, Heidi who was 6 months pregnant climbed into bed, and Tim went to check locks before heading to bed. That's when he noticed the smoke and rushed to get his family and pets out of the house immediately. Their oldest son, Aidan, had a broken foot and was on crutches. Tim ran to the kids' shared bedroom to scoop up Aidan as well as 18 month old Kylee and shouted to Heidi to grab Caleb. The family headed as quick as they could for the door.
Once outside and knowing everyone was safe, their thoughts turned to their pets and the angel shoped box sitting on a shelf that held the ashed to their stillborn child, Kenna. One of Indahl's neighbors invited their family into their house to stay warm while the firefighters worked to put out the flames. Both animals survived the fire, Rocky's aquarium was hand delivered by one of the firefighters but he didn't make an appearance for a few days afterwards. Then Heidi approached one of the firefighters and asked if there was any possible way to retreive Kenna's ashes and a few other mementos sittin on "Kenna's Shelf". The firefighter went in and shortly after handed both to Heidi for safe keeping.
The Winona County Red Cross volunteers showed up shortly after. Luther Berge, fire call volunteer, met Tim outside the home and began assessing the needs of the family. Luther worked with Tim to come up with an emergency needs plan for his family. Luckily they had insurance and their agent was on the scene the next day to do some damage assessment of their own. The Indahl's pastor quickly ran to Walmart to get sweatsuits for the family while they were working with Red Cross. We were able to provide shelter for three nights at a local hotel, groceries for a week, clothing and shoes for the family, and infant supplies for Kylee including diapers. One other need that quickly arose when thihnking about the amount of smoke was Caleb's asthma. Luther called Gayle Gorman, a local disaster volunteer and casework supervisor to discuss the matter at hand. Gayle made arrangements to have a replacement inhaler supplied to them immediately.
To the best of their knowledge the fire startd when some rags Tim was using to refinish a rocking chair caught fire in the garage. The fire quickly spread and what was left behind was devastating to all involved. Experiencing a fire is devastating regardless of size or level of destruction, but what this family went through is astonishing. Consider this list: house fire, missing animals, planning to put house on the market, moving across the country, 6 months pregnant, home schooling supplies and materials in the house,a child on crutches, another with severe asthma and allergies, along with the obvious needs of an 18 month old. We were there when they needed us, but they too were prepared. This could have had a much different outcome if it weren't for the quick actions of these parents.