New Lenox Family Rebuilding After Fire Destroys Home

NEW LENOX, IL — Gerald and Debra Platta moved to New Lenox in 1991. For the last 30 years they made their house in the 2000 block of Rydal Street their home. It only took about 30 minutes for it all to go up in smoke.

The Plattas had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Sept. 25. The next night their home caught on fire.

The New Lenox Fire Protection District reported that a call came in at approximately 9:15 p.m. Sept. 26. The call first went through to the Manhattan Fire Protection District, which borders the Plattas’ home. Fire crews were on the scene in about three minutes.

Related: Home Fire Results In Damage, No Injuries: Fire Officials

The Plattas were sleeping at the time the fire broke out. Debra heard what she thought was a knocking on the door. So Gerald got up to check what the noise was and discovered the fire in the back of the home heading toward the interior.

“He started screaming, ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’ And he ran back down to get [Debra] and the dog,” the couple's daughter Tina Platta said.

Gerald was able to get Debra and the dog, Lilly, outside. Gerald had his keys to his truck in his pocket. In the few short moments it took to pull the truck up to Debra and Lilly, the entire house was engulfed in flames, Tina said.

“They just made it out,” Tina said.

The Platta family has been back to the home several times since the fire, but there was not much left that was salvageable, Tina said. Investigators are still trying to figure out what started the fire, Tina said.

Tina said her family plans to rebuild the house, but that will take time, perhaps as long as a year and a half. The investigators still need to finish up their work, and the family has to work with their insurance company to collect payment on the house.

While the Plattas wait, they are all staying together at Tina’s home in Joliet. Tina is working to get the supplies she needs for her mother, who is 67, has congestive heart failure and is a lung cancer survivor. Gerald is 70 and retired. Tina is working to make sure her mother has all the medications she needs that were lost in the fire, as well as a wheelchair to help her get around.

Tina said she would like to set up a GoFundMe account for her parents, but has not yet been able to do so because she has not figured out how. She and her daughter Aubrey Sky Platta have been selling chocolate door-to-door to try and raise some money, and one person on the social media site Nextdoor has reached out to other members of the community to try and organize some help for the Plattas.

Anyone who would like to get in touch with Tina with any support for the family can do so by emailing her at tinaplatta@gmail.com. Readers can also view the Nextdoor post by following this link.

Having her parents staying with her because they lost their home is not the ideal reason to be spending more time with them, but Tina chooses to look at the positive side of things.

“The only thing that matters is that they got out and that’s it. Everything else can be replaced,” she said. “I’m just blessed that they’re with me.”

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