Perrysburg Heights family seeks to recover from home fire

On the other side of Dixie Highway, away from Levis Commons and the luxury townhouses, Christiana Lopez surveys what’s left of her home in Perrysburg.

The walls, melted from the intense heat, are torn down. All the family’s burnt possessions are hauled away except for the darkened cabinets, sink and refrigerator from their kitchen, the only room left standing.

The place looks more like an empty wooden boat, bare and stripped, rather than what was once their home.

“There ain’t nothing left,” said her partner, Leo Navarro.

The family lost its belongings in a fire Thursday that destroyed the manufactured home at 12460 Roosevelt St. in the Perrysburg Heights neighborhood. The fire was caused by an electric breaker box in the back bedroom, said Ms. Lopez, who was watching television in the living room when she first smelled smoke at about 6:30 p.m.

The fire stole baby pictures and young Emilio Navarro’s baseball and basketball trophies.

The fire destroyed everything so fast. There wasn’t time to save their things.

Angelyica Navarro, 14, left, and her twin sister Alexandria, 14, center right, join their father Leo Navarro, right, and a family friend Rojelio Sanchez, 9, center left, listen to their mother, Christina Lopez, center, talk about the fire that claimed their family's Perrysburg home on Aug 16. THE BLADE/KATIE RAUSCH Enlarge | Buy This Photo

“It’s not like the movies,” said Alexandria Navarro, 14, an eighth-grade student at the Perrysburg Junior High. “It’s not like that.”

Now, the family with four children – which also in addition to Emilio, 10, a Fort Meigs fifth-grade student, also includes Rosa, 11, a sixth-grade student at the junior high and Alexandria’s twin sister, Angelyica – are staying at a family member’s home nearby in Perrysburg.

They own the small lot on Roosevelt, paying it off just this month, so they want to eventually rebuild in the same neighborhood.

“It’s hard — a lot of good memories in that house,” said Alexandria, who had lived there nearly seven years with her family.

A fund called the Navarro/Lopez Family Benefit was set up Wednesday at Farmers & Merchants State Bank at 7001 Lighthouse Way, Ms. Lopez said.

Friends also started an online Web site to collect donations for their home: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0F44A8AF229-navarro.

Contact Gabrielle Russon at grusson@theblade.com, #419-351-0361 or on Twitter @GabrielleRusson.