ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It’s hard for St. Petersburg resident Melisa Reiter to sit at home while knowing the pain and sadness her sister is feeling more than 1,000 miles away.
Her sister Julie’s home in Boulder was burned to the ground in a matter of minutes last week. Melisa had just spent Christmas with her sister’s family inside their Colorado home and had been back in Florida for less than 48 hours when the fire ripped through.
“We had a great holiday and vacation, we flew out Tuesday and the house burned to the ground Thursday,” Melisa said.
Julie, her husband and their 15-year-old daughter were not injured but lost all of their possessions. All that’s left of the family home is an air conditioning unit and a mailbox.
While Melisa wants to be by her sister’s side, she doesn’t want to burden the area’s already strained resources. She says watching what her sister is going through has given her new perspective.
“I always thought it would be my house,” she said. “In Hurricane Irma, we evacuated but you have a week! You plan, you put everything in your car, you get your photo albums.”
Julie says by the time they realized the fire was serious to the time their home was burned to the ground, no more than an hour had passed.
“We know there’s blessings to come out of this, it just might take awhile for us to see them all,” Julie said.
St. Pete resident Melisa Reiter left her sister Julie’s house in Boulder not even 48 hours before the fire ripped through. All that’s left of the family home is an air conditioning unit and mailbox. Now the Reiter family is trying to piece their life back together @BN9 pic.twitter.com/PE169rZxx3
— Angie Angers (@angie_angers) January 5, 2022
Right now, the Reiter family’s goal is to find a new permanent home and get their teenager back to school and into a routine. After that, they will start replacing what they can.
“This community knows how to rally and take care of one another but we’ve never seen anything of this magnitude,” Julie said. “Just thank you to everyone who’s offered to help.”
Donations to the victims of the Boulder fire are being accepted through www.commfound.org. Donations directly to the Reiter family are being accepted here.
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