GREENFIELD — As she looked over the charred remains of the house where her son had accidentally overdosed four years ago, Dana Brown felt an unexpected sense of peace.
Although the fire that swept through her rented Greenfield home in the early morning hours of July 5 was catastrophic — sparked by fireworks that had been shot off on the Fourth of July — it was the sense of healing it brought her and her family that was unexpected.
“I looked at that house and thought ‘I’ll never have to see that room again,’” she said, referring to the upstairs bathroom where her son Cord overdosed on heroin in February 2017, shortly after relapsing.
Her youngest daughter felt the same way, refusing to go back inside the charred home at the corner of Eighth and Apple streets, cleansed of the bad memories it held.
Brown said that after the fire, her husband, Dave Brown, who found his stepson unresponsive the day he died, was finally able to make peace with God for the first time since his death.
“My husband’s been mad at God ever since my son was taken away, but he’s not anymore. He came to church on Sunday,” Brown said this week, between shifts at her longtime job as a server at Lincoln Square Pancake House in Greenfield.
Brown is overwhelmed at the outpouring of support she’s had since the house fire. She’s more accustomed to being on the giving end, having hosted annual fundraisers to fight substance abuse, through a benefit held at Lincoln Square each year since her son died.
More than $1,300 has been dropped in a donation jar at the restaurant for Brown’s family, in addition to a Go Fund Me account started by fellow members at Brandywine Community Church in Greenfield.
Her boss, Costas Stylianou, who owns Lincoln Square in Greenfield, immediately lent his support, calling her from Greece as soon as he heard the news. Customers and church members have been quick to give hugs and support.
“People have been wanting to bring me things like furniture and clothes, and 10 to 15 people have offered us a place to live. To me that’s amazing,” Brown said.
“I know that we’re blessed. We lost our house, but those are just things. There are so many blessings that have come out of it,” she said.
“I can see God’s hands all over it. The fact that we don’t have to ever go back in there, he knew that would bring great healing to our family.”
Brown, her husband and her brother — who was living in an apartment over their garage — along with their three dogs, are staying with Brown’s sister in Greenfield.
They’re hoping the early 1900s rental house — which is owned by Brown’s nephew — can be rebuilt and they can eventually move back in.
Brown said her “love-hate relationship” with the house is hard to explain. The house connects her to her son Cord, yet the memories of that day he died there are unbearable.
“I would have never moved, but none of us ever went in that bathroom after that,” she said. “Now we never have to look at that bathroom again. That’s a blessing.”
The family spent hours helplessly watching their house burn as firefighters from Greenfield, Sugar Creek Township and Buck Creek Township battled the blaze, which started shortly after midnight.
Despite the tragedy, Brown said it didn’t take long for the unexpected sense of peace to wash over them.
As the fire tore through their attic, they could see through the sliding glass door that one wall in particular seemed to remain untouched by the flames — the wall where photos and mementos of Cord were hanging.
Brown recalled a firefighter bringing out one particular keepsake — a wooden cross inscribed with the word “blessed,” that someone made for Brown after her son died — and handed it to the family as he emerged from the home.
Another brought out a family photo of all of her grown kids next to Cord’s headstone.
“The firemen were so compassionate. One of them even put oxygen on my cat trying to save him,” said Brown, whose three cats later died from smoke inhalation.
Showing compassion is just part of the job, said Greenfield Fire Chief Brian Lott.
“Typically there are three things we do in residential fires,” he said. “First is fire safety, making sure everyone is out. The second is extinguishing the fire, and the third is salvage and overhaul. As we’re starting to pull things down, we teach our guys — it’s inbred in them through recruit class — that if you see things of value to homeowners, you try to protect it if you can,” he said.
Brown said she’ll never forget the firefighters who fought the fire, which started from some fireworks that had been discarded in a trash can next to the home.
She and her family have shot off fireworks for the Fourth of July for years.
“We’re always super cautious and submerge them in a bucket of water, then pour another bucket of water over that,” Brown said.
Just before going to bed, she and her husband had picked up some debris in the backyard and tossed it into a trash can, thinking everything they had gathered up had cooled.
A fire broke out less than an hour later as they slept, however, and the sound of smoke alarms woke the couple as a neighbor beat on their windows.
As fate would have it, Brown and her husband had just taken out renter’s insurance and had their smoke alarms updated not too long ago.
“There’s a real good chance we would not have made it out without them,” she said.
