Family Copes After Fire

The Graffious family home across from Agoura High School's football field still smells of smoke. Blackened bicycle wheels and gas pipes lay beside a charred recreational boat on the front lawn. Smoke streaks line the children's bedrooms. You can see the sky through the ceiling in the kitchen. 

An electrical short in the garage set off a blaze that ripped through the house on Valley Heights Drive on Tuesday.

Caleb, 4, was sick at home with his grandmother when the fire broke out. Caitlyn, a sophomore at Agoura High and the oldest of the four Graffious children, was at cross country practice on the school's field when students began to smell smoke. 

Mom Lori Graffious, an instructional aide at the high school, was making copies in the office when her mother called at 3:49 p.m.

"Honey, you might want to come home," Lori recalled her mother telling her over the phone. "Your house is on fire." 

The house was in flames when Lori arrived. She saw firefighters pulling out the family dog, who was unconscious. Her husband, Dave, was still at work at the Ralph's Supermarket in Westlake Village.

"A neighbor had gotten word of the fire and went to the Agoura Ralphs trying to reach Dave," Lori said. "Lots of people in the community were awesome—a lot of support, love and kindness from our neighbors."

Dozens of neighbors and students watched firefighters battle the blaze. By 4 p.m., the fire was out and the house was left blackened, enshrouded with smoke.

"We lost a lot of sentimental stuff—plastic totes containing all four of my kids' stuff from kindergarten and up, handprints, our wedding album, my wedding dress, a handmade cradle from my brother-in-law. Everything else was just stuff," Lori said.

The family spent the night at the Homewood Suites hotel, next door to Trader Joe's on Canwood Street. 

"I thought it was over last night. I didn't get to sleep until 5 a.m. I woke up at 7 a.m.," Lori said. "The inventory of what I had lost kept running through my mind."

She walked through the house, stepping over shards of wall paneling and fallen ceiling. 

"I am just processing what I want to save," Lori said, lifting a children's tool box covered in soot. "We have to start cleaning now, otherwise nothing is going to be saved."

Lori said Dave will have to go back to work Thursday. "He doesn't get paid off work," she said. "I don't feel I can handle this by myself."

Dave, who had been sitting on the couch in his cluttered living room, stood up and headed for the front door. "It had to happen to someone," he said. "Why not us?"