SEQUIM — When Yvonne Sayer, 27, watched her home — and her family’s belongings — go up in flames last week, she was enduring a second trauma in less than a year.
Sayer’s fiancé, Travis Klink, the father of her two young children, died suddenly last March, at age 29, while sleeping at their home in Carlsborg.
The pair, together for a decade, had planned on marrying in the summer of 2010, said Sayer’s mother, Stephanie Sayer of Blyn.
Klink left behind a son, Ayden, now 5 and in kindergarten, and a daughter, Haylee, 9.
‘A new life’
Sayer and her children recently moved from Carlsborg to a house on East Fir Street, “to start a new life,” Stephanie said.
On Thursday afternoon at about 2:30 p.m., Sayer came home to find her rented house aflame; after dialing 9-1-1, she phoned her mother.
“I was frantic. At first I didn’t understand her,” Stephanie said. Then, realizing what was happening, “I just wanted to jump through the phone and be there with her.”
Stephanie and Sayer’s father, Wayne Sayer Sr., live in the Blyn area, so it took a while to reach the Sequim neighborhood where their daughter had watched three fire engines and 18 firefighters attack the rapidly escalating blaze.
They had the fire out an hour after their 2:36 p.m. arrival, according to Clallam County Fire District 3 Lt. Robert Rhoads.
No people had been hurt, but the family’s pets, two birds, a cat and their small dog were killed.
On Friday, District 3 Fire Marshal Roger Moeder said he had determined that the living room was where the fire started. He declined to specify the cause, at least until Monday.
The 1,300-square-foot house, blackened and gutted, was considered a total loss by fire officials.
“She is having a rough go,” said Sayer’s older brother, Wayne Sayer Jr. “She was going through a tough enough time, learning how to be a single mom.”
Lost everything
“They lost everything. They have no clothes . . . She had just paid her rent, so she has no money.
“She woke up this morning to the realization that she doesn’t have a toothbrush.”
When he learned of the fire, Wayne picked up Haylee and Ayden from school at Helen Haller Elementary and brought them to an aunt’s home nearby, so they wouldn’t have to see the charred house.
Now Sayer and her children are staying with her parents.
“I think she’s still in shock … we’re thankful we’re close enough [to Sequim] to shelter her,” and relieved that their daughter and grandchildren weren’t home when the fire ignited.
When the children’s father died last winter, “the community was so gracious,” Stephanie added.
And the morning after the fire, Sayer and her family had again received many phone calls and help, in the form of gift certificates from the Sequim Elks Lodge for new coats and shoes for both children, donations from other families who know Haylee and Ayden from the Boys & Girls Club in Sequim, and from other individuals.
An account has been set up for the family at Sound Community Bank, and donations may be made in Yvonne Sayer’s name at branches in Sequim or Port Angeles.
Pat Davis, a paraeducator at Helen Haller Elementary School, said Friday that parents had already begun assembling gifts for Ayden and Haylee.
“Hopefully the community will pull together,” Davis said. “It seems like we always do, in Sequim.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.