By Shavonne Potts
Salisbury Post
Tabatha Rayfield wipes tears from her eyes as she recalls Oct. 15, the day life changed for her family.
Around the time most people were leaving work that day, Rayfield got news that fire had destroyed her log home and that her husband, Randy, who tried to battle the flames, was nowhere to be found.
It was as if time slowed as she made her way from Greensboro. It was a bright Monday afternoon. The time was 5 p.m.
“You can’t get home fast enough,” Rayfield said of the feeling she had that day.
When she finally arrived at the home near Rockwell, it was dark. Her two-story house was a charred mess. Her husband was alive but with first- and second-degree burns to his left arm, neck and ears.
Randy Rayfield had been pressure-washing the log home when sons Bailey and Cameron, 9, asked for something to eat.
He put oil on the stove to heat for chicken nuggets, went back outside and simply forgot about it.
“When he went back in, the whole kitchen was engulfed,” Rayfield said. “He knew it was going to be bad.”
When Randy couldn’t extinguish the fire on his own, he made an effort to save what he could. He went to the back of the home and threw household items off the balcony and onto the ground below.
He saved a few mementos and the family later reclaimed some photos.
Most of the damage was in the kitchen, the boys’ room ó adjacent to the kitchen ó and the front portion of the house.
A propane grill on the front porch exploded, causing even more damage to that part of the home.
The 340 Geneva Drive house was destroyed.
Firefighters had a difficult time getting to the house because of its narrow driveway.
“Only one truck could get back here at a time,” Rayfield said.
Randy’s parents built the house nearly 10 years ago.
As the couple mourned the loss of pieces of their life, the American Red Cross offered solace.
“A firefighter said, ‘Do you need Red Cross?’ ” Rayfield recalled.
It meant a lot to Rayfield that volunteers from the Elizabeth Hanford Dole Chapter of the American Red Cross thought of her children.
“They brought stuffed animals,” she said.
The stuffed Mickey Mouse figures reminded the boys of happier times on their Disney vacation the year before.
Red Cross provided the family a place to stay for several days and gave them referrals to other agencies where they received food, clothing and furniture.
The organization also followed up with the family to see how they were coping.
The first two days, the family sifted through the rubble, salvaging little but some family photos stored on disc and on a digital camera.
“Those were the things that were untouched,” she said.
Other things spared in fire included some Tupperware in the kitchen and a letter box that contained the twins’ birth certificates and other papers.
“How do you explain what got left behind and what the fire took?” Rayfield asked.
The younger Rayfields had a hard time visiting the ruins.
“The boys didn’t like looking at it,” she said.
They have since relieved some of that anxiety by spraying the house with neon paint and using what’s left for batting practice.
Putting the pieces of their lives back together is like a second job for Rayfield.
She’s trying to maintain some sort of normalcy for her children, all the while dealing with the insurance company and working on how to rebuild the house.
“There’s so many thoughts and directions,” Rayfield said.
Tabatha owns Dimensions Dance Arts in Rockwell. Her husband is a computer technician.
The family intends to rebuild, since they like the area and have plenty of acreage for the boys to play.
“You just don’t want to give that up,” she said.
But the fire has made Randy and Tabatha rethink the mile-long dirt road that leads to their house and whether they should consider making it more accessible.
The family is staying at a church parsonage on St. Paul’s Church Road. Someone moved out of the parsonage two weeks before the fire.
They’ve received furniture from friends and family.
But they can’t forget the help they received from the community, and most of all from the Red Cross.
Red Cross Executive Director Steve Simpson said the organization tries to be there for a family in and, when it can no longer can provide services, refers families to other agencies, such as the Salvation Army or Rowan Helping Ministries.
“Watching your house burn down is a pretty traumatic thing,” he said.
Staff and volunteers also get necessary medications, eyeglasses and other essentials. They provide for everyone in the family.
Most people are aware of the services the organization provides, such as help following a fire. But not many know the Red Cross will locate missing people.
The organization located a Croatian man living in Canada whose family lived in Salisbury. The man was to testify during the Hague tribunal, held to investigate and prosecute war crimes.
Simpson explained that the man had been held in a concentration camp years before relocating to Canada.
Another Salisbury resident was looking for his brother, who’d been executed years ago. Through the efforts of the Red Cross, the man’s body was found in a mass grave during an excavation in Serbia.
During the 2004 tsunami that devastated various parts of southeast Asia, “Red Cross helped as a whole to get Americans in touch with family,” Simpson said.
When families have emergencies and need to locate a family member serving abroad in the military, the Red Cross steps in to work with other national groups to locate them.
“We’ve assisted 42 families in Rowan County,” he said.
Simpson explained that if there’s a death in the family, the Red Cross gains contact with service members quicker than the family could via phone or email.
“The Red Cross message is like a doctor’s note for the military,” Simpson said.
The organization’s goal is to get the message out within two hours of their directive.
Red Cross also helps those who’ve long since retired from their military duties.
“Veterans who can’t get to appointments,” he said.
Those appointments don’t just fall within Rowan County. “We’re helping a veteran who needs a bus ticket to Baltimore for another program,” Simpson said.
All of these services are made possible by private donations and any money the Red Cross obtains from the United Way.
“We are not government funded. We don’t get money from the national chapter,” he said.
The organization also has a golf tournament in the spring to help raise money.
Simpson believes the myth that the Red Cross has infinite money was perpetuated by Hurricane Katrina, when funds seemed unlimited.
Deborah Lineberger is the director of disaster services and she coordinates the staff to help during times of crisis.
If a disaster strikes, the Red Cross sends staff members out of the state or country to assist, she explained. In October, Red Cross staff members assisted during the wildfires in California.
Red Cross also has ongoing training for health services, including nursing, CPR and first aid.
The Elizabeth Hanford Dole Chapter of the American Red Cross is located at 1930 W. Jake Alexander Blvd. For more information, call 704-633-3854 or visit the agency’s Web site at http://ehdole.redcross.org.
Contact Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253 or spotts@salisburypost.com.