Lance Larson was biking through Colorado in early September 2022 when he got the phone call.
His Heber City home was in flames.
His assistant had just driven by to find fire trucks and emergency responders, and he called Larson to let him know what he had seen.
In the first minutes, Larson didn’t know exactly what he had lost. Was it just his home, or had someone been inside during the blaze? His wife and three grandchildren were all living there.
After an agonizing half hour, he finally learned that one of his grandchildren had been visiting their cousins in Francis with his wife and dog, and the other two had been at Swiss Days with their mother.
“I called the neighbor to see what all had happened, how bad it was,” Larson recalled. “It really put me at ease making sure everybody was all right, but I still didn’t know the extent of the damage until I got back. And it was just pretty much a total loss.”
He returned from his two-wheeled adventure to his distraught family, who had stayed the night in his motorhome. Everything in the home was ruined. After finding a motel room and making a Walmart run for clothes, he got in contact with his insurance company.
Larson, a superintendent at the Wasatch Golf Course, had heard from his boss before he had even returned to the state. His supervisor put him and his family up in a house the community helped furnish.
He said he and his family were humbled and grateful, but also devastated.
“We lost everything we’ve had for the last 30 or 40 years. But the main thing is nobody was hurt. Items can be replaced,” he said. Then he thought for a moment. “Some things you can’t replace, though. We had a lot of pictures, photo albums.”
Larson started looking to replace his home. His brother worked for general contractor Joe Witt. He went to his boss with questions from Larson.
Witt quickly became concerned that Larson might inadvertently make things harder for himself. After deciding to speak to Larson directly about the situation, Witt also realized Larson had fallen victim to a quiet problem that’s crept over homeowners insurance policies throughout Wasatch County.
“When I talked to him, I could see that what the big issue was is that most people, including the Larson family, have not kept up with increasing their insurance due to inflation,” Witt said. “Even though insurance policies have things like cost to rebuild or a provision for code improvement, they also have caps on that.”
Without the limits, he explained, people could get insurance for a $200,000 home on their $800,000 house and expect insurance to take care of it if something were to happen.
“It can only pay the cost to rebuild within the parameters of what the policy was written for,” Witt said. “As I talked to him and as I saw the situation there, I said, ‘You’re not going to make it. With the insurance payout you will not make it to the end. … You’re going to run out of money before your house is done being built.'”
Larson remembered the moment he knew Witt would get involved.
“I was over there when Joe was demolishing the house with the excavator and the dump truck, and he was loading our stuff, and he could see what we’d lost,” Larson said. “He called me over.”
Witt, a member of the Park City Area Home Builders Association, wanted to reach out to contractors and help build a new home.
Witt also remembered the demolition. The home was a home — with laundry, dishes and closets of clothes. It struck him personally and made him wonder what it would be like to trade positions with Larson.
“There was clothes in the washing machine. There was a wash going when this happened. There was dishes in the dishwasher. This wasn’t something they planned on,” Witt remembered. “The sense of community came a little bit before then, but it became very real at the beginning of the process.”
In his mind, their house became his house, and he recognized the devastation of their loss.
He and his company decided they needed to step in.
“We made a determination at the beginning of the project that everybody involved was going to give something. And we didn’t necessarily know what that was going to be, but that was pretty much the motto moving forward,” he said. “If you’re working on it or supplying on it … you’re going to give something.”
Essentially, everyone had a buy-in. If contractors didn’t want to somehow contribute to the project, Witt found other contractors.
The countertop company only charged for labor. The architect charged $500 for a $1,500 job. The furniture store allowed the Larsons to pick out the pieces they wanted for free up to a certain amount, and then provided a significant discount.
Larson said over 50 companies and individuals contributed. Even with last year’s harsh winter pausing construction for a time, the home was ready for the Larsons in September.
He encourages people to check up on their insurance policies.
“I’d say that year from when the fire happened, that whole year was probably the worst year that I’ve ever experienced. But after that, once we moved in and stuff, it’s just the best I’ve slept in a year in our new house,” Larson said. “We’re very humble, very grateful and thankful for everybody involved,”