HEBRON — A West Paris family of seven who lost their home in a fire last month will move from a motel to a new donated home this week.

“I have my kids and my husband. What else could I want?” said Kristy Basso only hours after she picked up her daughter, Tori, who flew into Boston’s Logan Airport from Texas early Wednesday morning.

Tori, a June graduate of the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris, joined the U.S. Army where she is studying to be a veterinary technician.

This was Tori’s first time home since the devastating fire on Nov. 6 that destroyed their West Paris home, probably killed their pet cats and cost them every material possession they owned.

“You can’t look back. You’ve got to get ready for the next day. There’s lots of work to be done,” said Kristy, who was at work at the Maine Veterans Home in Paris at the time of the fire.

The blaze erupted just before 11 a.m. on a Sunday when her husband, Josh Basso, was home with three of their four sons, Matthew, 13, Jacob, 10, and 18-month-old Nicholas. Their 15-year-old son, Jon, a football player and student at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, was on his way home from visiting his grandmother in New Hampshire.

Kristy said her husband is a full-time worker and student, working long hours at both, and might have been sleeping at the time of the fire had he not decided to be outside playing with his sons that morning.

The fire, which started in the kitchen, quickly erupted and destroyed the home before firefighters could contain it.

“The first thing my son Jon said was, “What about my homework?” He and his siblings were back at school the very next day and the community at large began a whirlwind effort to assist the family.

Since that time, the family has been staying at the Mollyockett Motel in West Paris thanks to the generosity of its owners, Fran and Tim Buck, Kristy said.

But this week they will spend their first night in a new home in Hebron. It has been loaned to the family by Paris Fire Department Deputy Chief Jon Longley who lost a home in a fire 20 years ago and understood the family’s plight.

About 100 people have donated their services to help restore the house, which needed new floors, interior walls and insulation, among other items. The house quickly began to fill up with donations, including a large donation from a family in Mexico whose home had also recently burned to the ground and who also had received contributions from the public after their loss.

“At first it was hard to accept all this, but we’re getting better at it,” Kristy said. She and Tori went from room to room sorting through donations and setting up living spaces for the family.

But as a caregiver at the Maine Veterans Home, Kristy said she finally realized that people need to give, just as she gives to the veterans. And she learned it was OK to accept gifts.

The Bassos will rebuild their home on their 90-acre lot in West Paris once their insurance company gives the go-ahead.

“Our goal is to look ahead. We’ll go forward,” she said as she and her daughter watched the traffic go by from the porch of their new, but temporary home.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

The Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School football team is sponsoring a benefit spaghetti dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday for the Joshua and Kristy Basso family, who lost their home and all belongings in a fire Nov. 6.

Copy the Story Link