Sand Springs couple copes with fire loss

An elderly Sand Springs couple is trying to cope with the loss of their home and nearly all their possessions after a devastating fire earlier this week. <br/><br/>As the News on 6 first told you Wednesday,

Friday, August 5th 2005, 10:55 am

By: News On 6

An elderly Sand Springs couple is trying to cope with the loss of their home and nearly all their possessions after a devastating fire earlier this week.

As the News on 6 first told you Wednesday, the fire started at about 5 AM Wednesday and quickly spread, burning most of the house to the ground. Lee Roy and Lola Mayfield escaped with their lives, but those lives will be forever changed.

News on 6 reporter Heather Lewin explains.

"The smoke was terrible. I ran back through the kitchen to the bedroom to get the kids out." Lee Roy Mayfield's family survived, but little else did. It's still hard for him to believe it really happened, that he stood and watched it all burn. "I can't even describe it the flames were so high." The Mayfieldâ€™s had hoped to live out the rest of their days in this house. Now all that's left from nearly 60 years of memories is a pile of ashes. â€œAn awful lot of years of hard work, just gone away."

Books, family photos, heirlooms, all gone. But what hurts Lee Roy the most is the loss of his tools. Long-retired, the 76-year old says working in his shop was the reason he got up every morning. "Somehow or other I was able to do a lot of stuff for a lot of people and now I can't."

The Mayfieldâ€™s are known in their community for helping others, in fact, more people than usual were in the house that night, because they were giving their granddaughter's family a place to stay. Now their kindness has come back to them a thousand fold, with friends and even a Sand Springs business pitching in.

During the clean up, helpers made a special discovery. Lola Mayfield: "When we got married this was the picture we had made." The couple's 50th anniversary quilt somehow escaped the flames. "I thought I'd lost this quilt."

The Mayfieldâ€™s say investigators told them the cause was a loose wire in a light fixture. Insurance should cover much of their financial loss, but after a lifetime of memories, they say most of it is irreplaceable.