By Keysha Drexel
Journal editor
On the weekend that they will mark a dark anniversary in their family’s life, the Bakir family in Homewood will open their home to neighbors and friends in an effort to help the people who helped them during their time of need.
The Bakir home at 218 LaPrado Place is one of the homes featured on the 2013 Historic Hollywood Home Tour.
The house, originally built in 1926, was struck by lightning and almost destroyed by fire during the violent storm outbreak in the Birmingham metro area on April 27, 2011.
The Bakirs have just finished repairing and renovating the historic home and said they wanted to be a part of the tour to help the community that rallied around them when they lost so much.
Proceeds from the Holly Oak Garden Club’s semiannual tour benefits Shades Cahaba Elementary School and other programs in Homewood.
“Our neighbors were so incredible after the fire and any way we can give back and show our appreciation, we want to do it,” said Shannon Murphy, who owns the home with her husband, Steve Bakir. The couple lives there with their three children, 12-year-old Halle, 9-year-old Michael and 6-year-old Lila.
On the evening of April 27 two years ago, Shannon said she was trying to get dinner for her children and make sure they all had their baths because of the bad weather making its way across the state.
“We were watching James Spann, trying to get baths, to get dinner, just normal family stuff,” Shannon said.
But soon the family’s normal evening took a chaotic turn.
Shannon said her oldest daughter became concerned about the weather while watching television and told her that the family should probably go to its safe place.
“The innermost place we had at that time was a closet upstairs, so I took the kids up there and got them settled in and went back downstairs to get my husband. He was outside at that time putting the car in the garage. That’s when I heard the loudest booming sound you can imagine. Later, people told me they heard it at the fire station,” she said.
As she called her husband inside, Shannon said she and Steve remarked at how close the boom of thunder and lightning had been and decided to get the dog and make their way to the upstairs closet with the children.
“That’s when I smelled smoke. I thought maybe a tree had been struck by lightning, and I had no idea at that point that it was our house that was actually hit,” she said.
Shannon said the family’s security and fire alarms went off and the kitchen began to fill with smoke.
“I just got this sick feeling in my stomach and told Steve to call 911. By that time, black smoke was pouring out everywhere. It was such a chaotic scene. We ran upstairs to get the kids and tried to get the dog, and the kids are screaming. We just didn’t know what to do,” she said.
Steve tried to battle the fire with a fire extinguisher but soon saw that the fire had spread to both floors of the house.
“It spread so quickly, and we’re just standing outside in this very ominous weather watching our house burn. It was surreal,” Shannon said.
Adding to the chaotic scene, the family couldn’t find its beloved dog, Baxter.
“I remember telling the children that Baxter might be in heaven, but he was actually saved by a firefighter,” Shannon said.
Shannon said it took Homewood firefighters most of the night to put out the blaze. Their house was heavily damaged not only by the fire but by smoke and water.
“The whole upstairs was a total loss. Downstairs had soot and smoke and water damage. It was just a mess,” she said.
Even before the firefighters left the scene, Shannon said, her neighbors were pitching in to help the family.
“The fire department had to flood the house to make sure all of the fire was extinguished, and a neighbor went inside before they did that and got a photo box out of the rubble for us. Our neighbors were phenomenal from the very beginning,” she said.
Neighbors were also able to save other things from the house, but Shannon said she estimates they lost about half of their belongings, including most of the children’s toys and furniture.
“What hurt the most, though, was losing their baby stuff–their first blankets, their baby photos. Those were the things I knew we couldn’t replace, and that was hard,” she said.
The day after the fire, members of the family’s church, Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Homewood, came by and helped them sort through the debris to try and save their belongings and family mementos.
“We could not have made it through those first few days without our friends and neighbors,” she said.
The couple immediately started efforts to rebuild their home and made plans to make it safer in the process.
“I think the most difficult part of this whole thing was that home is supposed to be the place where your kids feel safe, and after the weather and the fire, I just wanted that feeling back for our kids,” she said.
Shannon said she and her husband regularly go over the family’s weather and fire safety plans with the children and do everything they can to ease their lingering fears about severe weather and fires.
“It’s been difficult, but I think now that the renovations are complete, we can settle down again,” she said.
Shannon, a native of Louisiana, said she’s become much more aware about weather conditions since the April 27 storms.
“I knew Alabama got tornadoes and bad weather, but this has really made me watch the weather so I know what to expect and how to prepare,” she said.
With the help of decorator Bonnie Cofield, architect Warren Kyle and builder Nathan Lovvorn, the family set about making their home more spacious and updating it to include new safety features.
“The first six months were full speed ahead. We were living in hotels, with neighbors and friends and we wanted to get back in our house as soon as we could and get the kids back into their routine in their own home,” she said.
Shannon said she knew she wanted the renovations to include safety ladders in the children’s bedrooms.
“But I wanted a clever way to hide them, so we came up with these built-in window seats that hide the escape ladders. The kids just pop open the window seat, grab the ladder and put it out their window, and they can get out of the house in case of a fire,” she said.
Also part of the redesign was moving all of the kids’ bedrooms to the second floor. Shannon said her son’s bedroom was previously on the first floor.
“This just makes the house more livable. We liked the idea of having everyone sleeping on the same floor,” she said.
The home got other safety features, including lightning rods, a sprinkler system and a safe room.
The renovations also included creating a breakfast room next to the kitchen and converting a den into a library downstairs.
To give the family the extra space they needed on the second floor, the high ceilings in the living room downstairs were lowered, Shannon said.
“But we still wanted to have something interesting on the ceiling, so we used wooden beams that were salvaged from an old Pennsylvania tobacco farm,” she said. “We wanted a nod to the home’s history but at the same time create a home that fit the way we live.”
Much of the wood used in the repairs and renovations was reclaimed wood, Shannon said.
A mantle in the living room was found at The Garages at The Garage Cafe and reassembled, Shannon said. A marble sink in the powder room was also a salvaged piece, Shannon said.
“There are a lot of ‘found’ treasures in the house. I wanted things that would make the house special,” she said.
While the master bedroom suite upstairs did not require a lot of repairs or renovations, Shannon said the family decided to add a safe room to the house during the redesign.
The master suite closet is actually a safe room that is built to withstand an F3 tornado. The safe room is stocked with bicycle helmets for the children, water, snacks, sleeping bags and an emergency weather radio.
“We know this helps us all feel safer at home, and that’s the way it should be. Home is your safe place, and we’re glad to be back home,” she said.
Visitors to the home during the 2013 Historic Hollywood Home Tour will also get a glimpse of what Shannon says is proof her family was being watched over on April 27, 2011.
Hanging at the top of the stairs is a framed drawing that is blackened by fire and soot and looks almost out of place among the stylized rooms of the historic home.
The family found the drawing among the rubble of the children’s rooms upstairs the day after the fire.
“I wasn’t really ready to bring the kids in and have them see all the damage, but they wanted to come in the house, so we were going through some things and Halle found this drawing of angels, and it was something I didn’t recognize at first. It was just sitting on the top of the stairs on top of all this mess, still intact,” Shannon said. “I asked Halle where it came from, and she told me, and I knew it must have been with all of the kids’ stuff, their artwork, that was lost.
“But it survived. To me, it proved that we had guardian angels watching over us that night.”