Trying to rebuild

LEE, Oct 13, 2008 (The Berkshire Eagle - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- HOG | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Robert DuPont Sr. and his wife Rosie were out for their usual Sunday drive on Feb. 24 when "Bob" DuPont got a call on his cell phone -- your house is on fire.

"You better not be joking me," DuPont recalled telling the caller.

No joke.

The DuPonts quickly returned to Lee to find their home and rental unit at 12 Robert St. was heavily damaged by fire for the second time in 17 years at that location. In 1991, Bob DuPont also suffered a head injury from a fall.

"We couldn't believe it, until we saw the house," DuPont said of this year's fire. "I was feeling we were snakebit."

The DuPonts immediately moved into the apartment building they own in East Lee until they rebuilt the house. The tenants at 12 Robert St., Jeffrey and Lea Wickizer and their two young children, have since found another apartment.

The DuPont blaze capped a five-month stretch of four residential fires in Lee that began on Sept. 30, 2007. David Durante saw the two-family rental his family had owned for 100 years at 130 Mill St. gutted by flames.

Then in the early evening of Dec. 17, two fires broke out within 10 minutes of each other. The first blaze occurred at a six-unit apartment building on Laurel Street across from the state police barracks, followed by the fire at 130 Tamarack Ave., the Sires residence which is less than 2 miles away.

No residents were hurt in any of the fires as they

either escaped unharmed or weren't home at all.

Local and state investigators eventually ruled three of the four fires were accidental and the fourth is likely as well.

The DuPonts, Durante and the Sires are all now at different stages of rebuilding.

Two weeks ago, the DuPonts had a modular home anchored atop the basement/storage area of the original split-level house, which firefighters saved -- including Bob's custom made 2005 Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The partially re-constructed home is far from finished, but DuPont, a professional painter, can't wait to do the exterior.

"Purple and orange of course, those are my colors," he said.

Meanwhile, his wife is rebuilding her 400-piece cookie jar collection, half of which was destroyed by the fire.

"She gets five or six new ones every weekend," DuPont said.

David Durante is also ready to rebuild. He took delivery of a duplex modular last week and will set it on a new foundation on Mill Street in a couple of days, replacing a residence his family owned for 100 years.

Durante is spending $180,000 on his housing project, but it could have been more.

"I'm doing alot of the work myself," he said. "I dug for the new foundation and plan to complete all the interior work."

Durante also did his own financial homework following the fire.

"The insurance company wanted to settle quickly, so I decided to hire a private adjuster," he said. "It took longer to settle, but I got all the money up front."

The finished product will have a pair of 2-bedroom units each at $900 per month.

Durante already has several potential tenants asking about availability.

"I've had four or five inquiries," he said. "If you have a rental in Lee, you don't need to advertise."

David and Trisha Sires are rebuilding their single story house on Tamarack Avenue from the ground up. The house is nearly complete, but until then they will keep living in a trailer home parked on their property behind the unfinished structure.

Bob Holcomb will be the last of the four fire victims to rebuild. The owner of Apex Automotive in Great Barrington is gathering quotes and estimates on the cost of various options. He's deciding whether to replicate the six-unit apartment building he bought on Laurel Street or erect some other type of housing.

"I'm not in a huge hurry due to the economy," he said, referring to the expense of heating and maintaining a large rental building.

Holcomb had bought the 112-year-old residence in February 2007 and did mostly exterior renovations before the fire last December. While the blaze mostly damaged the upper floor, he still had to tear down the entire building.

A cement slab and fireplace is all that remains.

"It was very depressing," Holcomb said. "We had put allot of work into that building."

Three sets of tenants were displaced by the fire, including his son who was going to be the on-site maintenance person for the six-unit dwelling.

"My son lost all his stuff: His pictures, his yearbook, everything," recalled Holcomb.

The younger Holcomb has since found an apartment in Great Barrington.

Meanwhile, his father must decide how best to rebuild from a fire that could have been more tragic.

"No one got hurt. Everyone walked away," said Holcomb. "You can buy a two-by-four, you can buy furniture, but you can't buy people."

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Dick Lindsay can be reached at rlindsay@berkshireeagle.com. or

(413) 496-6233

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