INTERLACHEN, Fla. – Just a week after celebrating 60 years of marriage, Marion and Cawley Holstein said they lost nearly everything when an electrical issue sparked a fire inside their mobile home, leaving the couple living in a camper while they wait on insurance and fire report to determine what, if anything, can be salvaged.
Cawley Holstein, 83, is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who spent more than 25 years in the fire service, including with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, helping other families through emergencies. Now, he said, his family is leaning on the community for support.
“It is a totally different feeling,” Holstein said. “Until you go through it.”
The fire happened June 22, about a week after the couple marked their anniversary on June 15. Holstein said he was in the living room when he heard a “pop” and noticed smoke near paperwork that had been stacked inside.
“I was in the living room, my wife was in the bedroom, I heard pop, and I looked over and I see a little bit of smoke,” he said. “It blew up in my face.”
Holstein said he got his wife and their dog out of the home and tried to fight the fire with a hose until firefighters arrived. But he said the smoke and heat quickly overwhelmed him.
“Mobile homes burn fast,” he said, describing how the living room and dining area were quickly consumed and the fire pushed into the kitchen and through the roof.
“We lost stuff that we’ve had since the day we got married. It’s gone,” he said. “Pictures of my grandkids, great-grandkids, gone.”
Marion Holstein, 79, was taken to the hospital after suffering smoke exposure, her husband said, and her underlying COPD made the situation more serious. He said she was released Sunday afternoon but is still recovering and using oxygen.
“She’s in the camper; she’s still not 100 percent,” he said. “She basically stays in the bedroom on the oxygen.”
Investigators determined the fire was caused by an electrical problem, Holstein said. The home has been boarded up, and the couple said they cannot yet go inside to remove belongings while they wait for the insurance process to be finalized.
“The adjuster was here Wednesday,” Holstein said. “He won’t tell me nothing until it’s finalized… They’re waiting on a report from the fire department.”
“I can’t go in and remove anything from it yet until they release it,” he said.
In the meantime, the couple’s daughter, Sherry McGoldrick, has set up a GoFundMe to help cover immediate expenses and the costs of relocating the couple closer to family.
“We did set up a GoFundMe to try to help alleviate some of these costs and help them get relocated,” McGoldrick said.
She said the family’s goal is to move Marion and Cawley back to South Florida, where relatives can provide a safer, more stable place for them to live.
“We do need to get them back to South Florida,” she said. “Where their family is located, and we can provide them a safe environment to live in and live the rest of their life.”