In the days that followed, a Minkoff demolition team began ripping out the drywall, carpeting and flooring—it was an unusually warm September, and there were concerns about mold. Eric and Kristin continued to wander through the chaos, searching for anything they could salvage among the soggy, charred mounds.
A few days after the fire, a worker carrying a heavy industrial dehumidifier to the second floor suffered a heart attack and died in a bedroom. “We felt terrible for him and his family,” Eric says. “All we could think was, ‘What next?’ ”
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Although much of the structure of the Burkas’ home was intact after the fire, the house was uninhabitable. Right: The destroyed family room; Eric and Kristin only let the kids walk through the house one time after
the fire.
Kristin and Eric looked for ways to minimize the impact of the fire on Lily, Ava and Max. Kristin and the kids had moved into her parents’ home, while Eric, a managing principal at Streetsense, a Bethesda-based real estate marketing firm, stayed in Bethesda with his mom and stepdad so he could be close to his office.
The renovated family room combines new furniture with Eric’s inherited antiques, which were restored after the fire. Photo by Bob Narod.
The Burka children attend the Maret School in Washington, D.C., and Kristin’s father, Leonard, teaches there, so he drove the kids to and from school each day. Every night, Leonard and Betty helped the kids with their homework and fed them dinner. “They just engulfed us, and the kids knew they were safe,” Kristin says.
Firefighters used flame-retardant covers to save the family’s dining room table, which had been passed down to Eric from his grandmother; it now sits in the renovated home. Photo by Bob Narod.
Designer Gerald Smith mixed textures, colors and shapes to give the kitchen an “urban-chic” feel. Photo by Bob Narod.
Two weeks after the fire, the Burkas found a home to rent in Chevy Chase. The kids were relieved to be back in their own neighborhood and near their friends, but the house was unfurnished and the Burkas had to rent everything in a hurry. “It was like a bad model home,” Eric says. “There wasn’t one thing in that house that was ours.”
All five family members had to buy new clothes. They went to the Apple Store and spent $6,000 on laptops so the kids could do their homework. At Bloomingdale’s, they spent another $10,000, letting the kids pick out duvets, pillows, sheets and mattress pads. “I wanted them to feel that their rooms were cozy and safe, and letting them pick their own stuff did that,” Kristin says.
