HENDERSONVILLE - On Good Friday (March 29), Clara and Frederick Balling were settling in for the night to watch television with their dogs when they heard noises they had never heard before.
"At about 8:45 p.m., we heard a noise, popping sounds," Clara Balling said. "My husband looked out the front windows and shouted, 'the garage is on fire.'"
The home at 105 Maple Hill Drive in the Kenmure community was engulfed in flames within a matter of minutes, she said.
"By the time we got out of the house, the garage was completely engulfed. Within five minutes, the fire had spread through the attic and floor joists to the entire house," Clara Balling said.
Lifetime of memories are gone
The Ballings had bought the house in 2016 after retiring and relocating from Michigan.
"We fell in love with this area and thought that Hendersonville was a lovely small town. The quirky southern charm of Flat Rock was attractive to us, and we love to visit the many breweries in the area. After 23 years of suburban life, the chance to live in the woods was attractive, and when we drove through the gates at Kenmure, we were hooked," Clara Balling said.
They had to watch helplessly as firefighters tried to fight the quickly-spreading blaze. Everything in the 3,952-square-foot home, valued at $900,000 according to their realtor, Bill Fishbourne of Allen-Tate Beverly Hanks, was lost.
"We lost 40 years of collecting things that I love," Clara Balling said.
Among the items was a 125-year-old quilt that her great-grandmother had pieced and hand-quilted.
"There was also a beautiful cherry table that my father had made for me before he died, photographs of a life, a family, my children growing up, Christmas tree ornaments that my mom and grandmother had made, the first painting I ever bought, purchased in 1985 because it reminded me of my grandfather," she said. "These are the things that I can never replace."
A life in limbo
Until they get the insurance money from their home being a total loss, the Ballings are living in limbo, Clara Balling said.
"Right now, we are trying to get a phone, drivers licenses, birth certificates, passports, credit cards and bank cards," she said. "We are staying at my mom’s two-bedroom condo while we wait for our insurance company to find housing for us that will accept dogs. We are really in limbo, because we can’t buy a house until we get insurance money."
She said they might also consider rebuilding the home in Kenmure.
"We absolutely don’t want to leave the area, but the housing shortage and time associated with rebuilding will be factors in our decisions," she said.
The community has showed its support by donating several things, Clara Balling said.
"Our community has been wonderful in donating (things) so we can get back to enjoying our retirement a little," she said. "Many of our friends have donated to our GoFundMe account. It’s really a hard experience to go through, but with the wonderful generous people in the area, it has been confirmation that we moved to a great place. I’ve been telling people that we lost our house but not our home."
Clara Balling said she and her husband learned an important lesson through all of this, and that is to have a heat detector in their garage.
"If people don’t have a heat detector and smoke alarms in their garages, they need to get them," she said. "If our fire had started after we had gone to sleep, I don’t know if we would have been able to get out as quickly. Firemen can come to your house and advise you on how to stay safe."
Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at DHensley@gannett.com. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.
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