Local photographer’s home destroyed in fire

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Inside the house Gardiner resident Ray Ketchum and his wife Diane have lived in for more than 30 years, the ground is covered with wet ash. The collapsed ceiling and exposed, burnt insulation are all that’s left of the pair’s home.

But outside the house, Ketchum’s friends and neighbors are helping him pick up the pieces after a Feb. 2 fire that turned his already complicated life on its head.

The night of the fire, documentary photographer Ray Ketchum said he felt like he was in a daze.

His wife Diane has been in and out of the hospital since October with a spinal compression fracture and a red blood cell problem doctors can’t seem to figure out.

With her health on his mind and the whirlwind of months where she was in and out of the ICU, he said he felt “spacey.”

Ketchum had just returned from visiting Diane, who was in intensive care in Harrison Hospital in Bremerton, and sitting in the office of his Gardiner home in the early evening when the whole room was suddenly filled with smoke. He looked up and the wall and ceiling were on fire.

That fire would go on to consume the entire house, kill one of Ketchum’s three cats and destroy his life’s collection of artwork-—his own and that of other artists.

Ketchum said he ran outside the house and realized his dog, a border collie named Brody, was still inside.

He ran back into the burning building to find Brody who was hiding in a bathroom. It wasn’t until the next day Ketchum realized he had sustained third degree burns on his hands rescuing the dog.

Once back outside, Ketchum said he ran for the garden hose, turned it on, stuck it through the bedroom window where flames were licking the outside of the house and then called 911.

Ketchum said he is not sure what started the fire, if it was an electrical fire or something else. He said if he knew he would want to go back in to save the house.

Clallam County Fire District #3 responded to the call, which came in at a little after 6 p.m. They were there within 10 minutes but the fire was already well underway.

The fire was fully extinguished by 9 p.m.

During the chaos, Marv Fowler, one of Ray’s oldest friends, called to see how Diane was doing and when Ketchum picked up the phone all he could get out was, “I can’t talk, the house is on fire,” Fowler said.

Fowler raced from his house in Sequim and showed up as the firefighters worked on the house and stayed the whole night with his friend until the chaos had ended and Ketchum sent him home.

The aftermath

Since the fire, Ketchum said he feels like he’s living day by day. Piling medical bills had forced the couple to forgo home insurance and now are on the hook for everything.

With the help of his friends and neighbors, Ketchum purchased a $1,500 18-foot RV to live in temporarily on his five-acre property.

A space to put the trailer needed to be cleared of brush and graveled for support and traction.

For a while he was sleeping in his van or in his detached workshop, which was untouched by the fire 100 yards away. Since being discharged, his wife has been staying with his 94-year-old mother in Dungeness.

The next step is to begin searching the house for any belongings that can be cleaned and saved.

From the outside one might not be able to guess the devastation inside, until looking at the burn marks coming from the door and broken window frames.

On Sunday, Feb. 16, a group of Ketchum’s friends and neighbors mostly made up of Fowler’s employees at Sequim Auto Clinic, where Ketchum is a regular and close friend, came to the property to help clear the workshop garage so anything saved from the house could be stored inside.

The garage held 40 years of memories for Ketchum, but it needed to go if he was going to start over, he said.

Ketchum rented an industrial Dumpster to haul the stuff away, which is estimated to cost him $1,000 per load.

Ketchum said up to this point he is doing everything with borrowed money as he is not able to work as a professional photographer since his computer was destroyed in the fire. While most of his equipment is probably salvagable, he has lost a significant portion of his original prints and negatives.

Eventually, the house will need to be demolished if he wants to rebuild, he said. But it’s difficult for him to think that far in the future as he attempts to get his most basic housing needs satisfied first.

A place to live for Ray and Diane

An online donation campaign on GoFundMe.com titled “A Place to Live for Ray and Diane” was started Feb. 9 by Janice Faye Parks. Her and her husband Tony have been friends with Ketchum for years.

The goal of $20,000 is meant to help kickstart the cleanup and rebuilding process as well as pay for any replacement equipment Ketchum needs to get back to taking photos.

As of publication, the page has raised almost $5,000 from 39 donors.

Ketchum said it’s hard for him to accept help from people, since he said he has always felt like the person who helps everyone else.

Fowler said that is exactly why he will always be there for Ketchum with whatever he needs, because he has been saved by him more than a few times over the 30-some-odd years they have known each other.