Spokane family may wait years to return home after wildfire contamination

SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane-area family whose home survived last month’s fires says it may be years before they can move back in.

Abi Moczulski’s house remains standing across from a row of burned homes, but the damage inside has forced her family out. A restoration company is now removing the remaining carpet after ash and soot contaminated the home with harmful toxins.

So far, crews have removed six televisions, every appliance and every piece of furniture, Moczulski said. Her baby’s toys and thousands of dollars in photography cameras also have to be discarded.

“Our house didn’t burn down, so there’s a part of us that feels almost guilty for having the feelings of disappointment that we don’t know what things are going to look like, because other people lost so much more than we did,” Moczulski said. “But that also doesn’t mean we didn’t lose so much too.”

Moczulski said the seals around the home’s windows melted during the fires and its vents filled with harmful toxins.

“We just, like, I pictured, like, ‘Oh, this is so cute. This is the last time he’s going to wear this outfit, and we get to pass it down to our next kid,’ but probably not,” Moczulski said.

She and her husband moved into the home with their new baby in April. Five months later, they had to leave.

Moczulski estimates the full cleanup could cost up to $120,000. She said she does not yet know how much insurance will cover.

The family has received $5,000 from its insurance company so far, money Moczulski said was spent on food and clothes within a week.

“We don’t just have money coming out of our ears,” she said. “The initial payout was helpful, but now we’re two months in, and we need to buy an Instant Pot. We just learned all the things that we’re losing, but we don’t have any more money.”

Moczulski said the family is also facing other unexpected costs while displaced, including a $2,000 car repair.

“Our emergency funds that we have in place are being used in the emergency that we’re in, but then we also have further emergencies that are coming up,” she said.

The home also no longer has running water. It is connected to an HOA water pipe system that Moczulski said melted in the fire. Repairs to that system could take years.

Spokane County Emergency Management reports 635 homes were destroyed in the fires, while more than 3,000 others sustained some type of damage.

For now, the Moczulski family is staying in a rental home as they wait for insurance guidance on what comes next. Moczulski said she hopes to restore some normalcy for her family.