Fairfield family suffers house fire, community rallies in support

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield community is coming together to help a family that was forced out of its home by fire.

At about 11:15 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 6, the Fairfield Fire Department was called to respond to a fire at 303 South B St. in Fairfield. The house has been converted in two apartments, and the southern half of the house had caught fire. Tenants in both of the apartments were home at the time, and everyone was able to escape unharmed. However, smoke and water damage to the southern part of the building left it uninhabitable, which meant its occupants, Dave Patterson and his 11-year-old son Kalen, had to seek shelter elsewhere.

In response to the fire, a friend of Patterson’s named Ava Boyd started a GoFundMe to raise money for the Patterson family. She set a goal of $10,000, and within just a couple of days, the GoFundMe had received more than $7,000 in donations.

Patterson said he deeply appreciates Boyd starting the GoFundMe, and appreciates the generosity of the residents who have given. He said he and his son are staying with other families in town while they search for more permanent lodging.

“I can handle anything. I can live in a hotel,” Patterson said. “What I really care about is my son, who just had his birthday on Sunday [Feb. 6], and then the next day our house catches on fire. I want to make things as easy for him as possible.”

Patterson said it was fortunate the fire happened during the day instead of at night, because the fire started near their bedroom upstairs. He was home at the time eating lunch when a stranger banged on his front day. Patterson doesn’t use that door, and he tried to communicate with the person that they were probably at the wrong address.

“There was this young kid on the porch, and I thought the tenants next door to us had called Door Dash,” Patterson said. “I went back to finish my lunch, and the banging got even louder, so I yelled, ‘You’re at the wrong house!’ And then he shouts, ‘Your house is on fire! There’s smoke pouring out of your house!’”

Patterson went outside to discover there was indeed smoke billowing from the upstairs. Though he was just inside, he smelled no smoke, and no smoke alarms went off. Another stranger who was outside the house asked if there was anyone in the other apartment. Patterson alerted that tenant about the fire, and that man grabbed his 5-year-old daughter and got out as quickly as they could.

Patterson later learned that the young man who banged on his door was on his way to college, and just happened to see the smoke as he was going by the house.

“He banged on the door first, and then another man showed up, and he banged on the door even louder,” Patterson said.

When the firefighters arrived, they kicked down the front door and began spraying the upstairs with water.

“The moment I knew it was bad was when the water shot straight through the roof,” Patterson said. “I realized I probably wasn’t going to be sleeping there that night.”

Patterson said there was no obvious cause for the fire, and that the firefighters guessed it was electrical because of where it started.

The fire destroyed the bedroom where Patterson and his son Kalen sleep. His other son, River, attends UNI and has his own bedroom in the house. Patterson said that the thing he’s thankful for is that the fire did not touch Kalen’s birthday presents that he had just received the day before.

“The whole place still smells like smoke,” Patterson said. “I went back after the fire, and when I opened the door to the bedroom, it was traumatic. I thank God it didn’t happen in the middle of the night. We were very lucky someone saw the smoke coming out.”

Boyd said she has gotten to know Patterson through working with him on a Fairfield Area Community Theatre production that will be put on in mid-March.

“He’s one of our writers, and we’ve been working on that together since September and have become close friends,” Boyd said. “I first heard about the fire because [Patterson] wasn’t able to attend one of our meetings.”

Boyd said that fellow FACT member Lou Bolster told her that the community needed to do something for the Patterson family.

“Lou encouraged me to start a GoFundMe,” Boyd said. “I had never done one before, but I said I would be happy to do it. I was surprised how easy it is to organize for somebody else.”

Boyd said that Bolster threw out the idea of setting a fundraising goal of $5,000.

“I said, ‘Let’s make it $10,000,’” Boyd remarked. “I don’t like to shoot low when setting goals.”

Patterson plans to go forward with his role in the FACT production, a variety show titled “Iowa: It’s All Right If You Like That Sort of Thing.” It will be a series of radio plays consisting of jokes, sketches, funny songs and more, all locally produced. It will be performed March 16-19 at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center.

“After last year’s Christmas show was so popular, we decided to try our hand at an original play,” Boyd said. “Dave has been an integral part of it. He’s amazing at writing commercials and funny dialogue.”

Patterson said that he’s thankful for the support he received from the Fairfield Fire Department and the American Red Cross.

The GoFundMe for the Patterson family can be found at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/dave-and-kalen-pattersons-fire-recovery-fund?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR1lUg — d-wW0mpnbIU7BymfIFL9lS_-jUFvMYnAI_zj2GFqv6wBpYzTZ9c

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com