Veterans step up to help fire victims

All that was left of the two-story home's garage was a charred black frame and a warped metal rack, bent from the heat of a two-alarm fire that raged in a home on Manka Circle Tuesday.

After Rincon Valley and Santa Rosa firefighters cut a vent hole in the roof, flames shoot from a home belonging to John and Judy Parcher on Manka Circle in Larkfield, Tuesday.
KENT PORTER/THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

But when homeowners Judy and John Parcher returned to their property Friday afternoon, and took in the mounds of torn insulation and blackened debris that were strewn about over the fall leaves on their property, they were smiling, because a group of concerned veterans had raised nearly $1,300 to help the couple through their difficult time.

“It's just nice to know that people care,” Judy Parcher said, wiping tears from her eyes.

The donations came from members of the American Legion Post 111 and Women's Auxiliary, who were eating a spaghetti dinner on Veterans' Day when Chief Ron Collier of the Windsor Fire Department made a pitch.

“All I did was, I told the American Legion last night about a fellow veteran, and I said he lost everything, and that's all it took,” Collier said. “The Post said, we're going to do this.”

John Parcher was in the Army, serving in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 as a crew chief Huey door gunner, but he didn't want to talk about the details of his service Friday.

The fire, which investigators say started in a clothing dryer, began around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday and tore through the couple's garage and roof. It took firefighters until dusk to control the blaze, which raged through the explosion of propane tanks that were stored in the garage.

“The home is inhabitable,” said Cyndi Foreman, fire prevention officer for the Rincon Valley Fire Department, who participated in the fire investigation. “They will not be living in this house for quite a long time.”