Rebuilding house 'miracle' for family who lost all in fire

By Bob Burchette

Special to the Recorder

First Baptist Church, High Point, members Dennis Faye and Gloria Odom clean old insulation from the burned home of Lee and Chris Griffith.

Photo by Bob Burchette

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HIGH POINT - Rebuilding Lee and Chris Griffith's fire-damaged home has been much slower than a project by TV's "Extreme Home Makeover" crew but the spirit of a community "coming together" to help a family in need is hard to top.

The restoration project has brought many volunteers from different segments of the community together. "I've never been so 'awed' - that's the only word I can think of," said Chris Griffith. "Most of these people (who are helping) didn't even know us," she said.

Members of High Point's First Baptist Church, employees at High Point Bank and Trust and other volunteers have been working for several months to restore the house - and the hope of a happier life - for the Griffiths. Lee Griffith, who has several illnesses, is wheel-chair bound.

There was no insurance, and rebuilding a house heavily damaged by fire and water appeared to be impossible, said Chris Griffith. Then her fellow employees at High Point Bank where she works learned of the fire and sprang into action. They started soliciting donations; established a web site telling about the Griffiths' misfortune; and held a barbecue to raise more money.

"I've never seen a business that looks after their employees the way High Point Bank does," Marshall Paine, Brotherhood director at the church said.

Bank customer and First Baptist Church member Dan Odom saw a flyer about the Griffith's need for help. His wife, Gloria, saw an opportunity for their church to help.

"At first we were going to rebuild the back porch and handicap ramp," Odom said. After seeing all of the work that was needed, she declared, "Mercy, no way...'' More needed to be done. Not only did the First Baptist Disaster Relief team become involved, the Baptist Men's Disaster Relief's Region V headquarters in Asheboro also assisted.

Lee Griffith, 64, still remembers the horror of Nov. 12, 2007, when he was home alone and unable to escape the fire in his wheelchair. Neighbor Sidney Griffith (Griffith's cousin) dashed into the house and rescued the helpless Lee from the fire. Chris Griffith was at work at the Fairfield Branch of High Point Bank.

The Griffiths found new hope when the disaster relief team from First Baptist Church and other volunteers joined the project started by fellow employees of Chris. Tearing away damaged materials and cleaning out the house was a big project before rebuilding could begin, said Paine. Gloria Odom was among those at the forefront of helping clean out the mess as the house was stripped of all interior walls and flooring, leaving only the framing and the subfloor.

Paine said volunteers started working to "put the house back in better shape that it was before the fire." It is a slow project because all that was left usable from the house were the foundation, the framing, the sub-flooring and the roofing structure. Everything else had to be torn down - even the exterior shingles were removed and have been replaced by siding. "The fire didn't burn it all down but there was so much water and smoke damage that we had to tear all of the walls out, the ceilings and the flooring," Paine said.

The project also includes employees from High Point Bank, Habitat for Humanity workers and engineer David White, who figured out how to put all of the new materials in place after the cleanup was done. A youth group from First Christian Church in Clemmons also helped with the cleanup, Gloria Odom said.

Rebuilding and repairing structures at disaster scenes is nothing new for Paine and the First Baptist group. Crews from the church made several trips to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in Gulfport, Miss., and have made many brief trips to disaster sites around the country, Paine said. The church has a new trailer equipped with tools for doing repair work.

"We didn't have money for insurance because I had to use what money we had to get Lee's wheelchair fixed. And it hadn't been fixed, Lee wouldn't have been able to get him out of the house," Chris said. The family car in which Lee was taken to Duke Medical Center in Durham for treatments had "blowed up" a few months before the fire. "It cost a lot to get the car fixed," she said.

The house was valued at $149,000, she said. The little house, sitting on two acres in a quiet neighborhood, had been home for the Griffiths for 22 years.

It didn't matter to First Baptist workers that the Griffiths don't attend their church, she said. "Of course, my husband can't attend church. We are members at Emmanuel Lutheran, and they've helped with donations," she said. "They bring communion to him."

A smiling Lee said he is grateful for all of the medical help he has received, and for what is being done to rebuild his house. He would like to have a hammer in hand helping the builders. Griffith misses his old job as a building contractor, he said.

(EDITOR'S NOTE - Burchette is a retired editor/writer at the Greensboro News & Record.)