The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Heisley House reopens after fire
Fire caused extensive smoke damage to respite care home
After suffering extensive smoke damage from a fire on Dec. 20, Mentor Heisley Respite House reopened on Feb. 1.
Heisley House, 6960 Heisley Road, provides respite care for families who need care for family members with developmental disabilities and can house up to four individuals at a time.
The facility is part of a multi-unit building, and while the fire started in the second unit, a fire wall prevented it from spreading into the unit occupied by Heisley House. But everything inside suffered smoke damage and devastated the Heisley House, said Theresa Wetzel, marketing manager for Lake County Board of Developmental Disabilities/Deepwood.
“It was through all kinds of effort from the community to go through and refurnish, not renovate, to kind of bring this house back to life,” Wetzel said. “People couldn’t stay in here. The smoke smell was too bad.”
She said the community really came together to raise funds and get the house operational again.
As a result of the fundraisers and donations, new bedding, mattresses, pillows, furniture, rugs, showers curtains, and groceries were able to be purchased to get the house back up and operating again, according to Angela Watson, respite coordinator for LCBDD/Deepwood.
“We had to throw so much stuff out so basically we bought everything it took to make it a home again,” Watson said. “We just opened up (Feb. 1) and it was great. It was so nice that we were able to get back up and running.”
Watson said the respite house is very important to the community and the parents who utilize it were good with working with
the staff and were excited when the house was open again.
“I couldn’t be prouder,” Watson said. “It’s filled every weekend and there is a big need for it and the parents look forward to it.”
In addition to receiving donations from The Deepwood Industries Board, the Lake County Association of Retard Citizens and the Deepwood Foundation, the respite care home received help from Kozlovich Enterprise. Owner Mikey Kozlovich sent three of his employees to the home to clean it from top to bottom to remove the smoke odor from the house.
Additionally, Levin Furniture assisted with a discount on items purchased
for the house.
Brittany Residential provides the house for respite care, and Jayson Fabian, its chief operating officer and administrator, said he was very pleased with the quick response of the fire departments, and the way Northcoast Communities Homes and their insurance company was able to put everything together as quickly as they did.
“I’m just very pleased with how quickly things were attended to, the county and Deepwood foundation coming through with donations,” Fabian said. “It was very helpful to us for sure and the people that we care for.”