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Buck and Diana Howard pose for a selfie with their newly remodeled kitchen, which included custom epoxy countertops. Within a span of three days, two of their grandchildren died and their house burned to the ground.
Buck and Diana Howard pose for a selfie with their newly remodeled kitchen, which included custom epoxy countertops. Within a span of three days, two of their grandchildren died and their house burned to the ground.
Buck and Diana Howard, who moved to rural Dent County five months ago, suffered the deaths of two young grandchildren April 12. Two days later, the couple returned home after an errand and found their home engulfed in flames.
The heart-wrenching chain of events began in early April, when one of Diana’s daughters, Sarah Morgan of nearby Houston noticed her two-month old, Rowan, was showing symptoms.
“He had been fevering for days, so she finally took him in. That was on Friday. They did some testing and stuff,” Diana told The Salem News. “They did find that he had a common cold, so they said ‘OK, he’s just got a cold, his fever’s going down, so he should be OK, just keep an eye on him.’”
Diana said that two days later, Rowan took a turn for the worse.
“Two days later, on Sunday, he was actually getting a baby blessing that day, and he started having seizures. He was crying with that high-pitched cry,” Diana said. “They took him in and ended up life-flighting him to Springfield, and he had meningitis. It had moved really quickly and it went into his brain.”
Doctors hoped the infection would normalize. Rowan spent 10 days in the hospital. Diana said Rowan fought valiantly, but ultimately couldn’t overcome the damage.
“They knew a lot of the brain had been damaged, but maybe that some of the neural pathways and stuff would rebuild. But. . . it didn’t. So, he passed away (April 12).”
Diana said that late April 11, family gathered at the Mercy Hospital in Springfield to say their farewells to Rowan.
“The family was all together, and we sang and prayed and said goodbye to him,” she said. “Then, the next morning, he died in the early morning.“
Spencer and Sarah Morgan pose with their son Rowan, who died of meningitis April 12.
Submitted photo
Keanu and Abby Faumuina with son Ledger, who died shortly after his birth April 12.
Submitted photo
‘We all got to be there’
Another of Diana’s daughters, Abby Faumuina of Elk Creek in rural Texas County, had a C-Section scheduled the morning of April 12, shortly after the death of Rowan. According to Diana, Abby’s baby, Ledger, had developed Limb-Body Wall Complex, a rare birth defect that causes abnormal body morphology of the fetus, which is almost always fatal.
“She carried him for 37 weeks, and they did a scheduled C-Section, so we knew about that one. We knew what was coming with that,” said Diana. “Our prayer the whole time had been that he would live long enough for her to be able to hold her baby alive. Her prayer had been, even if it was just for a few minutes, her prayer would be ‘can I see his eyes, I want to be able to look into my baby’s eyes.’”
Ledger was born with organs on the outside of his body.
“He lived for an hour. He opened his eyes, and he was quite alert during that time; Well, the first 15-20 minutes, and then he was not very alert,” Diana said tearfully. “But he held on for a while, and we all got to be there.”
Planning for funerals, not a fire
Diana and Buck were dealing with the loss of their grandchildren while preparing to welcome visiting family members into their home for the funerals.
“We had a lot of support. It was a terrible, awful, heartbreaking experience, but it was beautiful and lovely and spiritual, because we could just feel our Savior’s love through the whole thing, supporting us,” said Diana of the funerals.
“Then, I stayed with my daughter while she was recuperating in the hospital. I came back Friday morning (April 14). We were finishing remodeling our kitchen, we had company coming for the funerals that were going to be that weekend, and we didn’t have a dishwasher yet for it.”
Buck and Diana traveled to Rolla to pick up their dishwasher and some other supplies.
The Howards rural Dent County home they had lived in for five months burned to the ground April 14.
Submitted photo
“We came home, and our house was half in flames,” said Diana.
Said Buck: “We just turned the corner to our driveway, and all I kept saying was ‘No, no, no.’ We had cars parked (near the house), we hurried and got them out, and I hurried to the backdoor to try and save the dogs.”
“I didn’t see it was a fire until we turned, and (Buck) said ‘Oh, no, no, no!’ I was on the phone with my stepdaughter who lost her baby, and I was like ‘oh my gosh, our house is on fire! It’s burning down!’” said Diana.
“Everything,” said Buck.
A go-cart at the Howard home was destroyed by the April 14 fire.
Submitted photo
Buck shared a photo of their home as it looks today, burned down to the basement. Virtually all of the family’s possessions went up in smoke.
Diana said that during the adrenaline rush, she had trouble remembering the name of the appropriate fire department to call. Buck eventually called 911.
“I don’t think we could figure out how to call 911 at first. We were frantic,” said Buck.
Added Diana, “I was talking to my neighbor, and she came over, and as we were watching everything happen she said something about my son. I said no, he’s safe. I knew everybody was out of the house.”
She thought Stetson, the Howard’s 10-year-old son, was at his sister’s house.
“And then I went, no, he’s not at her house, she just went and had the baby, and then I was like ‘Where’s my son?’” Diana said.
“I just went wait, was he still sleeping? Did we leave him behind? For a second my brain couldn’t comprehend. I’m like, is my son in the house burning up? I swear he was safe; I swear he wasn’t home,.”
She finally realized Stetson was at school.
“That’s just what your brain does (in those situations),” said Diana.
The Lenox Fire Department responded to the call. The Howards said firefighters arrived in around 15 minutes.
“Lenox Fire Department was awesome. They were compassionate, they were immediately calling Red Cross for us, (firefighter) Donnie Good who I met, really just took care of you, and they just stayed there,” Diana said. “Then we had neighbors come, people from our church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) came and started clearing because the forest started catching on fire, so everybody was just there.”
Buck said as soon as he saw the fire, he ran around to the screened-in porch to try and save the family pets that he thought were locked inside.
“That’s why I opened that back door, but I had a massive black thing of smoke hit me and knock me over, and then I realized the dogs made it,” said Buck.
“The week before, (one of the dogs) had learned how to bust out the screen to get out,” said Diana, who added the situation could have been much worse.
“All the small blessings. If it had happened a few hours before, my husband and son would have been sleeping, my daughter and her husband and my four grandkids were on their way. They ran late, and if they would have come when they planned to, they would have been there. It could have been a big loss of life. Could have been people hurt. Our dogs made it out, our cats made it out, nobody was there, there was going to be a house full of people over the weekend. I had sisters coming to stay the next night.”
Community responds with compassion
Diana says when they left the house earlier that day, everything was normal. The couple thinks the fire started near the electrical box.
“Honestly, from my perspective, if we hadn’t lost those babies, I think (the fire) would have been much harder for me. It’s hard, but it’s like the babies were here and we just lost the babies. (With the fire), it’s like ‘Oh my gosh, we’re alive,’” said Diana.
“The babies kind of overwhelmed a lot of stuff,” added Buck.
“It was the mercies of God that we were taken care of in all that,” said Diana. “We can rebuild a house. Of course, I’m sad that my house is gone. We had possessions that were heirlooms that came from our parents and grandparents and stuff that are irreplaceable. You can replace something like it, but it’s not what they touched and held. But we’re all alive and we’re ok. I just kept going ‘we can rebuild a house. It’s just stuff. Everybody is alive, and that’s what’s important.’”
Buck said he had lost his home before, and one of the reasons he moved his family to the area was to ensure they wouldn’t have to go through the same thing.
“Before I met Diana, I lost three companies in Las Vegas, and my home,” says Buck. “My mom died, and then I was homeless. So, I went from well-off to homeless, and I thought ‘I don’t want this to happen again to my new family.’”
They sold their home in Utah to find a home they could pay cash for.
“Two weeks before (the fire) we had gotten insurance,” said Diana.
The Howards say they were amazed by the compassion shown to them by the community. Stetson returned home from school that day with a note from a teacher with an offer of help and the name of her church. Many others, churches and individuals, have reached out to the Howards in the days following.
Buck only had the Croc-style shoes on his feet after the fire. He was buying muck boots at MFA to safely pick through the remains of the home, when he struck up a conversation with a young boy. The boy’s mother was there with her kids, and he told her what happened.
“I put the boots up there, and went to look at some Carhart jackets,” said Buck. “I went to pay for (the boots), and the girl goes ‘no, it’s ok’. I said, ‘well no, I have to pay for the boots.’ She kind of pointed over at that lady, and the lady had paid for our boots, $122. That brought tears to our eyes, and we gave her a hug.”
“(Wednesday) morning, I came out of the Crossroads Inn and Suites, and there’s been construction guys staying there doing work in town, and I had discussions with him a few days ago because they’ve been there all week. He said, ‘Can we have a prayer real quick?’ and so we put our arms around each other, and he said a prayer. It’s just an outpouring of support of people that don’t even know you.
“That’s the weird thing about out here. We’re LDS (Latter-Day Saints), so we came from Utah where it’s all LDS, I mean everywhere is LDS. Here, it’s different denominations everywhere. You’ve got religious radio stations, religious people everywhere, and it’s so nice. Out in the middle of nowhere is the Church.”
Diana agreed.
“My daughters have experienced the same thing, just an outpouring of love and kindness within the church, but also people everywhere just being so kind and giving, and supportive,” she said.
The family is currently staying at the Crossroads Inn and Suites in Salem while they assess their next steps. Buck says they are considering buying a basic fifth-wheel camper to stay in while they rebuild their home.
“We just finished the remodel of the kitchen,” laughed Buck. He showed a photo of the custom epoxy countertops, taken just before the fire.
Faith plays a role
Diana said the family’s faith in God has kept them strong throughout the ordeal.
“We do believe, so rather than saying ‘oh, why me’, it’s like well, if it was going to happen, everything was in place that the least amount of damage was possibly done,” said Diana. “I just feel so thankful for the Lord’s hand in our lives, and that so many people embraced that and are so generous.
Buck says the community is unique when it comes to faith.
“A construction worker coming up this morning wanting to say a prayer, you don’t get that in other places across the country, too much, at least I don’t. I’m from the West, and we don’t have that,” he said. “It’s been obviously a difficult experience, but a heartwarming experience the whole time.”
Diana said the family is not used to being in this position.
“It’s a little embarrassing to us,” she said.
Added Buck, “We’re usually the ones trying to help people, and never needing people to help us. That’s why it’s been really emotional. We’re usually the ones trying to see what we can do for someone, not used to being the guys who get the help.”
Diana summed it up.
“It’s been very humbling. It’s been a terrible, awful, very painful, heartbreaking, lovely, beautiful, spiritual experience for us,” she said.
“We’re both pretty resilient,” added Buck.
Three Go Fund Me campaigns have been set up for the family, one for each baby to cover large medical bills and funeral expenses, and one set up by Buck’s sister, Linda Sego of Alpine, Utah, to help the Howards as they rebuild their lives. The family says that they have little room for large physical donations (such as furniture) in their hotel room, and that local churches have been helping them with meals. When asked the best way to reach him for donations, Buck said people can reach out to him on Facebook.
