A Newtown, Conn. family that includes two children who survived the Sandy Hook massacre is now recovering from a fire that destroyed their home.
“Considering the turmoil our family has been through, this is the icing on the cake,” Hans Barth said today as he surveyed the charred remains of his family’s house.
Barth, his wife Audra and their three children lost everything in the Wednesday afternoon blaze, including their 5-year-old Chihuahua and several baby chickens.
The Barths’ children — including 7-year-old Peter, who survived the massacre with his classmates in a locked school bathroom — were “pretty shaken” by the blaze, Hans Barth said.
Trouble comes in threes, Audra Barth said. Between medical woes she endured last year, the school shooting and the fire, “We’ve got our three. We’re good,” she said.
Luckily, everyone in the household was away at the time of the fire.
Hans Barth said he learned of the blaze when he saw fire trucks in the neighborhood as he headed home from running errands.
“The roads were closed. The fire department didn’t let us through,” Barth said.
The property still smells of smoke today, and what’s left of the house is boarded up. “There’s really nothing personal in there that can be salvaged,” said Hans Barth.
Except, oddly, a jar of coins and a wallet with $20, which survived the blaze undamaged. “Play the lottery,” one of Hans Barth’s friends suggested when the wallet turned up.
Hans Barth said he and his wife hope to move their family into a bank-owned house that’s next door to their destroyed home. For now, the family is living in a motel.
Whatever happens, the Barths plan to stay in the neighborhood.
“Our kids have been through a lot. To tear them out of their home now it would be the worst thing we could do,” Audra Barth said.
Peter Barth was a first-grader in the classroom of teacher Kaitlin Roig, who heroically barricaded her students in a bathroom when shooter Adam Lanza killed 20 other first-graders and six teachers and other school employees in the December 14 massacre.
Peter’s sister Shanice, 8, was a Sandy Hook third-grader. The couple also has a 2-year-old son, Jacob.