LAKEPORT — Following the fire that destroyed a Lakeport woman”s home on Wednesday, what she really wants is to sell her extra stuff at her yard sale and find a part-time job.
Pat Kacharos, 70, will have clothes, kitchenware, linens and electronics set out from today to Wednesday in front of the trailer where she used to live at 2357 Parallel Drive in Lakeport. While she won”t be present the whole time, she”s asking people leave $2 or less for each item they take.
She said she doesn”t have the energy to sit at her yard sale all day since the fire three days ago.
“I believe most people are good and they won”t steal the money,” Kacharos said.
“There are some boxes I haven”t looked in for 10 years,” she said. “There may be a treasure in there.”
Her energy and creativity for the sale “just poofed,” she said.
“I think the emotional part, it”s just starting to whack me on the head right now,” she said.
Kacharos accidentally cut an extension cord when she backed up while using electric hedge clippers to cut blackberry bushes, she said. She disconnected the clippers from the extension cord, but didn”t disconnect the extension cord from her house. She then went inside without noticing the vegetation fire that ignited.
Chief Ken Wells of Lakeport fire said the short followed the cord to the trailer, igniting vegetation just behind it. The blaze destroyed the trailer and burned some of the surrounding plants and grass. No injuries were reported and no other structures were threatened.
In the space of a half hour Friday, two family members and three community members stopped by Kacharos” trailer to see if she was OK and to offer help.
Kacharos said now that the things she planned to sell in her trailer burned, she doesn”t have to carry them out to the yard.
“Except for my mother”s photos, there”s not anything in there that can”t be reproduced,” Kacharos said.
She might go through her own yard sale to search for clothes to go dancing and “get all dolled up,” she said.
“At the yard sale, I will come by and say hi, maybe put some cookies out,” Kacharos said. “I guess I don”t have any place to cook cookies.”
Kacharos said she could use an XP computer, because hers was burned along with a few she was fixing to give families in need.
She has places to stay with her family, she said.
It took less than a half hour from her trailer to go from “sizzling to poof,” she said.
“I always defend the rights of people to have old junk because I have old junk,” Kacharos said. “But that place burned so fast. If I really had been taking a nap I would be dead.”
She thinks somehow people have to move out of old trailers that aren”t insulated and replace them because they”re fire hazards.
“I”ll live in another trailer,” she said. “I have to, that”s what I can afford.”
Steve Sprague of Lakeport arrived at Kacharos” home about the same time Wednesday as the fire chief and looked around the trailer and the house behind it to make sure no one was inside. He said he”s “stoked” Kacharos made it out alive.
“I used to live in this house,” he said. “I thought, somebody has to live there. But I didn”t see any people outside hollering.”
Sprague came to check on Kacharos Friday and said to her, “I”m glad you”re OK.”
She said she”s just happy her cat came back. The cat stood on the porch of the burned trailer Friday meowing from behind the fire line Kacharos has yet to cross.
Debra Grinols, Kacharos stepdaughter, stopped by to donate items for the sale. Grinols said she thinks it makes sense that her stepmom is selling things she didn”t use even though all her other possessions burned.
“We”ve pretty much learned in life you can”t cry over spilled milk,” Grinols said. “It”s done. You can”t sit there and mope about it. You have to move on and push through.”
Kacharos wrote the following thank you letter.
“I”m the person whose house burned down last Wednesday,” Kacharos said.
“I thought everything went up in smoke ? but the important stuff didn”t. So I want to be thankful for:
“One, the man whose name I never got who got me and my handicap scooter out and called 9-1-1.
“Two, my neighbors who came down to see if I was OK and show they care.
“Three, Nancy Ruzicka, who came up from her office at Ruzicka and offered me a place to stay.
“Four, Record-Bee reporter Katy, who was kind to me and did a very nice article.
“Five, not last by any means, Lakeport, Kelseyville and other firefighters who were so kind, caring and oh ? by the way, put out the fire too.
“Goodness is out there. Believe me, I know for sure.”
Contact Katy Sweeny at kdsweeny@gmail.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
