(MONDAY UPDATE: Contribution information added at story’s end)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

It’s hard, and heartwrenching, to imagine … two weeks till Christmas, you’ve done all your shopping, even gotten a tree – hadn’t even had a chance to decorate it yet – and suddenly, fire takes it all away.

E-mail this morning, and an emotional conversation this afternoon, brought new information on the aftermath of what was described as a “small fire” when we covered it early Friday on 49th SW just north of Admiral Way. Turns out, that “small fire” brought big losses to the West Seattle family who lives in the house – though of course mom Ronni Peterson is thankful to be alive, after escaping the early-morning fire with her dog Louie:

We met Louie and Ronni in the living room of her neighbor Karen Kinch, who e-mailed to ask if we’d help get the word out about what Ronni needs in the fire’s aftermath. Ronni didn’t want to be photographed, but talked at length about how she and Louie made it out, and how the presents she’d bought for her two teenagers (not home at the time) went up in smoke, as well as many other family belongings – some of which we photographed in the yard shortly after the fire:

Here’s that same view this afternoon:

It was 3 am Friday when Ronni awakened to “weird, loud popping sounds” that she thought might have been someone trying to break in. She opened her bedroom door – and the smoke rushed in. After slamming the door shut, Ronni realized she and Louie had only one viable escape route – the window in this photo:

Below the window, at the bottom of concrete steps to the basement door, is a roll of old carpeting. That’s where Louie landed when Ronni threw him out the window to safety. He’s 7 years old; she is sure the carpeting saved him from death or serious injury. She managed to get from the window to the side yard without falling down there too. As she ran over and banged on Karen’s door, she heard the massive fire response (you can see the 14-unit callout at 3:09 am on this archived 911 log) – and then saw Louie in danger of running across Admiral.

She rescued him. Firefighters got the flames out fast. But not before the smoke and water trashed the interior of the front of the house:

According to Ronni, the fireplace was to blame for sparking the fire – embers from a fire she’d had going earlier in the evening. As she noted in a comment on WSB last night, she is a renter, but didn’t have insurance. She’s staying with relatives, after spending that first night at Karen’s house. Her kids are with family and friends – 15-year-old Emily, a tenth grade at The Center School, and 13-year-old Evan, a seventh grader at Madison Middle School.

Instead of dealing with the aftermath of a fire, she was supposed to be spending today helping with fundraising for Emily’s upcoming school trip to Costa Rica. Ronni had obtained $700 in See’s Candy for her family and others to sell as a fundraiser – and all that candy was in the house, along with Christmas presents she’d bought early — Black Friday sale items, now just plain blackened, along with so many things, even little Christmas decorations:

Asked what she needs, Ronni says for starters, a storage unit where she can keep the belongings that are salvageable from the house – items she could take out of it right now if she had somewhere to put them. Then she needs to find a new place to rent, no more than $1,200, which she was paying at the now-too-damaged-to-inhabit house by 49th and Admiral. She needs to stay in West Seattle, she says, because she and her former husband share child custody, and he’s just about a mile away from where she’s been living.

After that, she says, she’ll probably need furniture. And while presents she’d bought for her teenagers “can’t be replaced,” she’s not even ready to think about that yet – she just has to get the basics handled.

If you can help, please e-mail her at ronnip66@gmail.com. Karen will be looking into a PayPal and/or regular bank account to set up a fund, but for starters, the storage and rental help would be big.

MONDAY UPDATE: Here’s information for bank and PayPal funds set up for Ronni and her family: At any Wells Fargo, you can designate a contribution for the Ronni Peterson Fire Relief Fund. Or via PayPal, you can send money to ronnip66@gmail.com.