Four years after fire burns a home, its replacement collapses and causes major injuries.
By Mark LaFlamme
Staff Writer

DURHAM – Battered and bleeding, Gerry LaBonte pushed the debris from his body and began to crawl across the roof of his home. His pelvis was broken and he was bleeding internally, but LaBonte crawled.

Tossed by gusting wind and pelted by rain, he crawled toward the back of the house. He got to the ground and crawled over a hill. Finally, shaken and in pain, LaBonte reached a telephone and called for help.

The 43-year-old Stackpole Road man was crushed last week when the unfinished roof of his home collapsed while he was sweeping rain water from a lower roof above the daylight basement.

It happened during a rain and wind storm that pounded the area Oct. 15. LaBonte has remained in an induced coma at a Lewiston hospital since, waiting for blood so he can undergo surgery.

Now his friends are rallying around him.

“He is such a good man,” said Sandy Gammon, a friend of LaBonte and his fiancee, Karen LaRoche. “He’s the kind of guy who will drop everything if someone needs help.”

Four years ago, fire burned most of the Stackpole Road home. LaBonte was preparing to rebuild the house this year in anticipation of his upcoming marriage to LaRoche. Then a rain storm blew across the area and the upper level of the house came tumbling down.

“As soon as he was done finishing the top part of the house, they were going to get married,” Gammon said. “They were going to have a reception there.”

LaBonte’s fiancee has been staying with friends and family while he remains at Central Maine Medical Center.

“They say everything happens for a reason,” LaRoche said. “Gerry and I have always been so pig-headed. We want to do everything by ourselves. I think this happened to show us that there are people out there who love and care about us.”

LaRoche and her 10-year-old daughter lost just about everything in the fire four years ago. The girl lost her doll collection and clothes when the blaze caused an estimated $200,000 damage to the large, two-story house in March 1999.

“They’ve been through some major tragedies,” said Roger LaRoche, Karen’s brother-in-law. “It’s devastating. We’re all trying to pitch in and do as much as we can.”

Although repairs were made and the house became habitable again after the fire, LaBonte, was working to restore it to its previous condition when the roof collapsed. Now, because the collapse is considered a so-called “act of God,” insurance will not cover the cost of re-building.

LaBonte, a self-employed mechanic, was in the critical care unit at CMMC this week in stable condition. Doctors were waiting for type-O blood before beginning surgery. LaBonte contracted pneumonia during his hospital stay and was being kept in a coma until surgery.

Karen LaRoche said her fiancé will spend at least six months in the hospital.

LaRoche would like to have a home for LaBonte to come home to. As of Tuesday, much of the house was still a pile of debris.

“We’d all like for him to come home and not have to worry about it,” LaRoche said.

Roger LaRoche has been trying to round up volunteers to help rebuild while reaching out to local businesses in hopes of getting supplies donated.

“With winter and Christmas coming, I’d just love for them to be able to get back into their house,” he said.

LaRoche said he hopes to get his hands on roofing supplies, flooring, insulation and wood to begin the project. They also need a crane and manpower to get the house back to where it was before the collapse.

“We’d work until we get it done,” Roger LaRoche said.

Karen LaRoche said she is touched by the way her family and friends have swarmed together to help out. She also has a new appreciation for hospital staff and the need for blood donations. As of Wednesday, it was all that was keeping her fiancé from getting the surgery he requires.

“If I can say one thing about this, I would ask people to give blood,” Karen LaRoche said.

mlaflamme@sunjournal.com

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