MORGANTOWN – Sometimes, it’s more than just a house. It’s a heartbeat.
This particular dwelling at 929 Bloody Run Road built by the Ayersman family more than 60 years ago is testament to that.
Roots of history, tradition and memory are already on the property there, in fact, with familial chords reaching deeper than the seams of a West Virginia coal mine.
Ayersman kids came of age in that house. Ayersman grandkids and great-grandkids took their literal first steps in that house.
You happily looped back for visits, after making your way elsewhere. Sometimes, you limped back, if life beat you up a bit and you needed a place to recover.
And a lot of the family simply never left – choosing to build and add to the generational strata on the surrounding property.
“Yeah, we’re a bit of a compound here,” said Crystal Ayersman Miller, who lives next door with her family.
When flames tore through the place last Thursday, no one thought twice. Everyone ran in the same direction and rallied.
“We needed to get our grandmother out,” Miller said. “It happened so fast. Those flames were scary.”
Clinton District and Triune-Halleck fire companies rolled up quick, along with their first responder VFD counterparts from Brookhaven, Star City, Cool Springs, Westover and Winfield, in neighboring Marion County.
Ambulance crews from Monongalia County and Marion, also.
While at least one cherished pet was lost to the flames, there were no other serious injuries or deaths reported.
The family now is still sifting through the charred rubble, Miller said, while trying to process “what any rebuilding will look like.”
Everything, including that box of Christmas decorations dating back 100 years, is gone.
Marcus Hopkins is still amazed by the initial overture, he said.
“I can’t credit the first responders enough,” said Hopkins, an Ayersman family member who came home to help tend to aging relatives after a couple of decades of living away in Los Angeles and other locales.
“And all those neighbors and friends who have stepped up to help,” he continued. “That’s so gratifying.”
Should you want to help, a GoFundMe page has been created in the aftermath. Just visit the website and type “Ayersman Family Fire” in the search field.
The account has had steady donations and brisk traffic since it went up last week, Hopkins said.
“People are experiencing their own uncertain times,” he said, “and for them to be so generous with us really means something.”
