Reprinted with permission from the Balaton Tribune
By Jenny Kirk
Don and Sandy Van Eck are mourning the loss of their rural farm home due to a fire on Monday evening, but they are also quick to count their blessings as no one was injured. The couple is also grateful for the incredible outpouring of support they’ve received from their friends, family, and neighbors.
“You can always rebuild or whatever,” Don Van Eck said. “We could’ve had the grandkids over or it could’ve been later at night.”
Sandy Van Eck recalls their son, Cody, 28, coming home about 5:50 p.m.
“He parked his car in the garage, and the car is what started the fire,” she said. “I was making supper, and I put bacon in the microwave to thaw it out. I thought, ‘Uh oh, something in the microwave smells like hot wires.’ So I took it out and smelled it.”
Realizing the bacon wasn’t the cause, Van Eck put the second pound of bacon in the microwave. Soon after, she found the cause.
“I turned around because it was really strong, and the whole dining room was just smoke,” she said. “Cody was in the bathroom, so I said, ‘Cody, there’s a fire. I bet it’s your car.’ And when we opened the garage, you couldn’t even see the van three feet away, so we shut the door. I said, ‘We can’t let oxygen get to it or it’s going to get worse. That’s when I ran — well, I first called 9-1-1 out on the patio — and then I came back in and started grabbing a few things.”
Cody ran to the barn to let his dad know about the fire.
“I tried to get the hood of the car open, but I couldn’t really see,” Don Van Eck said. “If I could have gotten the hood open, I probably could have gotten it stopped.”
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