Holladay families find belongings, mourn losses after storage unit fire

HOLLADAY — As Barbara Bher unfolded the remains of a quilt her grandmother had made for her, she couldn't help but think about the memories associated with it.

Each square came from an old article of clothing she used to wear as a child. Now, the blanket has large holes and charred edges and smells like it was used to start a campfire.

Bher tried to put on her best face, but she couldn't stop the tears from falling as she sorted through the soot and blackened remains of possessions and thought about all she had lost.

"It's my past. It's my life. I don't know what I'd miss the most," she said. "I don't even know what to think about it. I don't know. I just cried all night."

On Tuesday, a two-alarm fire roared through 20 units of Highland Self Storage, 4014 S. Highland Drive. A man draining gasoline from his motorcycle accidently spilled some next to his space heater, which ignited the fuel. The fire quickly spread to the wood trusses and into the surrounding units.

Many renters went back to their storage sheds for the first time Wednesday to see what, if anything, could be salvaged.

Bher said she lost skis, camping equipment and tools. But it was losing the items that had sentimental value — those items that can never be replaced — that hurt the most.

In one corner of her shed lay the remains of several notebooks — a book that she had been writing for 10 years. Bher also found in the rubble a family photo album that her daughter had made in school years ago when she was 6.

Despite the great loss, "there is a miracle in it," Bher said.

Amazingly, a box containing priceless family photos survived.

"Everything else is ashes," she said.

At another shed, Jac Koeman lost all of the property he had stored, including antiques that were several hundred years old.

"Everything is gone," he said.

Koeman brought several items from France and the Netherlands to America with him when he moved. Among the items was a cabinet/dresser made in the 1700s and an armoire built without any screws or nails. Koeman also lost his collection of model airplanes and his skis in the fire. He tried to take his losses in stride.

"What the hell can I do about it?" he said.

But as Koeman watched Bher and her daughter, Emily Wynhof, go through their remains to see what was salvageable, he kept remembering more items that were in his own shed.

"Those freakin' snowshoes, I didn't get to use them," Bher said, partly joking and partly in anger as she, too, kept recalling what was in her storage unit.

In another shed, John Suchy was storing furniture and other items for his daughter, who is serving in the Peace Corps in Kenya.