Rex Pyle holds a family photo album after finding it in the midst of what remains of his home. The residence on Camino Alhambra on the south side of Santa Fe was destroyed in a fire early Saturday morning. ‘People are going to say, “You shouldn’t have been in there,” ’ the 50-year-old Pyle said, referring to his insistence in digging through the ashes. ‘Yeah, but you didn’t lose everything.’
Rex Pyle speaks Monday to members of the Red Cross, which is offering him financial assistance to help with the costs of food and shelter after a fire destroyed his family’s home Saturday.
Rex Pyle digs through a drawer of knickknacks Monday to see what can be salvaged in what remains of his south side home, which burnt down Saturday morning.
Rex Pyle holds a family photo album after finding it in the midst of what remains of his home. The residence on Camino Alhambra on the south side of Santa Fe was destroyed in a fire early Saturday morning. ‘People are going to say, “You shouldn’t have been in there,” ’ the 50-year-old Pyle said, referring to his insistence in digging through the ashes. ‘Yeah, but you didn’t lose everything.’
Rex Pyle spent Monday afternoon digging for lost treasures from his family’s past — most buried deep beneath the charred remnants of his home of nearly 23 years.
“C’mon, where’s my album?” Pyle asked as he struggled to find a signed record from the 1980s girl group Bananarama, a treasure he obtained years ago.
When he found it, the album cover bore the scorched scars of Saturday morning’s fire.
“People are going to say, ‘You shouldn’t have been in there,’ ” the 50-year-old Pyle said, referring to his insistence in digging through the ashes. “Yeah, but you didn’t lose everything.”
Life changed for Pyle and his wife, Nicole Taylor, when she awoke to the sounds of their two dogs barking at about 4 a.m. Rex had spent the evening at his brother’s house in Española, but the barking didn’t initially alarm Taylor.
“I thought, ‘OK, well it’s time to get up and let them out,’ ” she said.
By the time she donned her slippers, Taylor, 49, said she realized the front porch of their mobile home on the city’s south side was on fire. Her first instinct: get a fire extinguisher to douse the flames. But by the time she approached the front of the house, it was engulfed in flames.
Nicole and her dogs were able to flee through the back entrance relatively unscathed. But the family’s three cats — Charlie, Daisy and Sabino — were lost.
“I forgot all about [our] cats, until I heard them screaming,” she said. “I felt so awful.”
Tenants at Steven Ricklin’s trailer park on Camino Alhambra rushed to help, Taylor said. As her longtime home succumbed to the fire, neighbors brought Taylor clothes and water.
The Santa Fe Fire Department responded to put out the flames, but Assistant Chief Sten Johnson said he could not provide information on the incident, when crews responded or what may have started the blaze.
As he tried to find belongings that could be salvaged, Pyle said he thinks the fire was started outside of their home.
“When you look at where [Taylor] thinks the fire started, things are still there. Things that are wooden are still not even burned,” Pyle said.
He said he struggled to contact law enforcement and support agencies, speculating the beginning of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta may have occupied officials over the weekend.
But employees with the American Red Cross came to look over the damage Monday, providing Pyle with a debit card for food and shelter. Pyle, Taylor and their dogs have been staying at a motel on Cerrillos Road since the fire.
Rex Pyle speaks Monday to members of the Red Cross, which is offering him financial assistance to help with the costs of food and shelter after a fire destroyed his family’s home Saturday.
The irony of the disaster was unmistakable: Over the years, Pyle and Taylor said they have taken in struggling family members and others having difficult times, allowing them to stay in their home.
“I’ve got stuff in the shed from three or four different people,” Pyle said. “For 23 years, we’ve helped a lot of people get back on their feet when they needed a place to stay, and now it’s gone.”
Taylor said she and her husband chose to let people stay with them over the years simply because they were in need and they could help.
“We didn’t have everything; we didn’t have the best, but what we had was comfortable,” Taylor said. “We didn’t have the best TVs, and we didn’t have the best game consoles, or even the best bed or best places to sleep, but we did have it. … We offered it to whomever was in need.”
Neighbors, friends and family have reached out in the last couple of days trying to offer assistance in whatever ways they can. Steven Ricklin’s son, Oliver Ricklin, set up a GoFundMe page over the weekend to help the couple. He said he’s known them his entire life.
“He’s done a lot of stuff for me. He’s done a lot of stuff for my dad. … He’s been really good,” Oliver Ricklin said.
Rex Pyle digs through a drawer of knickknacks Monday to see what can be salvaged in what remains of his south side home, which burnt down Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, Pyle said one of his sons — also named Rex — is in the process of setting up a fundraiser in order to help his parents get back on their feet.
Taylor added a number of her friends have offered a place to stay.
“Well, thankfully, I am a homegrown tomato,” Taylor said. “I have lots of friends here, people both from my past and from my present … I am grateful that there are so many of them.”
But though Pyle and Taylor may find a new place, they won’t be able to replace the family photos, signed memorabilia or the rest of the priceless mementos that evaporated in the blink of an eye.
“The more I look at it, the more it hits me just how much I’ve lost,” Pyle said, his hands covered in soot from rescuing old yearbooks and pieces of days gone by.
