WHITEFIELD, Maine (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- A family in Whitefield is rebuilding their home after a fire burned it to the ground last year.
The pounding of a nail into a home under construction is something John Pagurko is used to. He a construction worker, but having to build is own home was never the plan. That changed when he, his wife Melanie and their four daughters woke up to the smell of smoke in their Whitefield home last September.
"Realized what was going on and it wasn't just a false alarm and I went and tried to put the fire out and hollered to them upstairs and everybody was out and it was nine minutes from the time when she called 911 when the fire department got here, 9 minutes and it was too late," said Pagurko. "It was an inferno in just the matter of minutes."
The family of six was in a difficult place, without a place to live. The West Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Augusta, where the Pagurkos go to church, went into help mode. Members of their church community, including Elder Bruce Berger, and town offered temporary housing for the family and donated clothes came in piles. The biggest help has come from two go fund me pages that have raised thousands of dollars to help rebuild their new home.
"They've had a hard time with this whole thing because they are givers, not receivers, so John especially has really struggled with the fact that he's always been, I got this and he's always been in a position to help others," said Berger. "For him to actually be in a position to receive help was foreign."
The hardship of losing a home to a fire isn't something the Pagurko's would wish on anyone, but if you go through something similar learn from their perseverance. They've remained positive through the entire rebuilding process and learned some important lessons. Pagurko admittedly has never been a big fan of hearing a fire alarm go off during a non-emergency. For everyone he took down, or turned off, his wife was right behind him to turn it back on, or reinstall. Literal lifesavers one year ago, during an actual fire emergency.
"Honestly we've been inconvenienced greatly, but I didn't have to make funeral arrangements, I didn't have to visit my kids in burn centers and I'm ecstatic about that," said Pagurko.
The goal is to have their home finished before the first snow fall. There is going to be a lot of electrical and plumbing work to finish the job. If anyone is willing to donate their time, or labor to that part of the project, you can contact the West Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Augusta at 207-623-9511.