Family that overcame homelessness ‘back to square one’ after fire destroyed Chesterfield house

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- A family that overcame homelessness is starting over again after a fire destroyed their Chesterfield home on March 10.

Mother Jatarra Ruffin said the family is taking things one day at a time now that she, her three young children and their grandmother are without a home.

She said she was at work when she got a phone call no one wants to hear.

"They were like, your kids are okay, but unfortunately your house burnt down," Ruffin said. "And I just lost it."

The home on Providence Creek Road was a symbol of the work Ruffin had put in to get her and her family out of homelessness. That day it was gone in a matter of minutes.

Ruffin's 16-year-old son Teshawn had just gotten home from school that Monday and sat down to eat when a neighbor starting banging on their door.

"She's like your house on fire, your house on fire," Teshawn said. "I'm like, what? I'm just eating cereal. So I was shocked."

Teshawn's 11 and 12-year-old siblings were also in the house, asleep.

"I had to bang on the door, wake him up," Teshawn said. "It took like, two or three minutes. I wasn't going to leave him in the house. I had to make sure he was good."

When Chesterfield Fire and EMS crews arrived at 4:20 p.m., they found flames coming through the roof. It took them about an hour to get it under control.

They said the fire likely started on the outside of the house. The windy conditions also spread the fire to the siding and gutters of a neighboring home.

"We were just watching our house," Teshawn said. "Everything, just gone."

"When we finally was able to go upstairs and we seen like, you know, the damage and stuff that it caused upstairs," Ruffin said. "It's like, yeah, the whole house is destroyed."

Ruffin said the family had been living there for just over a year.

The home was a point of pride for Ruffin, who said for years the family had struggled to find secure housing while she worked minimum wage jobs, sometimes two at a time.

"My goal was to go back to school, get my diploma, get a good career," Ruffin said. "I did that, get off public assistance, everything."

"I felt like I met my goals and then it's like, I feel like now is like I'm back to square one. Like starting over," Ruffin said.

Ruffin and her family are staying at hotels, relying on help from friends and family for things like clothes for the kids. She said she's extremely grateful for the support she's had so far, but it's been an extremely difficult time.

"I wouldn't wish this on nobody. I don't know how we're going to get through it," Ruffin said. "I feel lost a little bit, honestly. But all I can do is take it one day at a time."

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.