Leicester rallies to aid fire victims.

Byline: Betty Lilyestrom

LEICESTER - When Barry and Lorraine Lyon lost their home to a fire early last Wednesday morning, it seemed almost as if their world had come to an end.

But their spirits have been buoyed by the outpouring of help from people in Leicester.

That help came almost immediately in the form of meals from a local diner, money collected to get the family back on its feet, and other offerings from local folks who had known the family of longtime Leicester residents over the years.

And help came from an organization that never had any contact with the Lyons - Wal-Mart, which is scheduled to open its superstore in Leicester Wednesday.

The store let the Lyon family go through the aisles Thursday and replace for free clothes, pajamas and personal items they had lost in the fire. Wal-Mart associates estimated the value of the donated items at $400.

"It's a beautiful store and it was unbelievable that they would do that for us," Lorraine Lyon said Saturday night.

Gina Wittenberg, manager of the new store, said she was deeply touched by the family's plight when she was told about it by Dianna Provencher, Leicester selectman and a new employee of Wal-Mart.

"I can't imagine anyone being in that situation," Ms. Wittenberg said. "I felt so bad for them. Our marketing manager was here that day and I ran the idea by him of opening the store to the family to help them get some of the things they had lost, and he was all for it."

Other help came from the Leicester School Department, where Lorraine and her sister, Sheila R. Barlow, both work. Lorraine is secretary to Michael Sheeran, assistant principal at Leicester High School, and Sheila is an assistant in the office of the special education director.

Sheila said the 48 teachers and staff members at Leicester High School raised $2,700 in two days to help the family. They raised additional money to provide food for two days. Students at the high school also raised money and presented it directly to the family, with a personal note of sorrow.

In addition, friends opened an account in the family's name at the Leicester branch of the Spencer Savings Bank and invited people to make donations there.

Eight employees of KCI Medical Supply Co., where Barry has worked for two years, contributed $1,300. Retired after 30 years at Norton Co., he operated the Lyons Den diner on Pleasant Street for four years, but found it difficult to make a go of the business and moved on to KCI.

"I've always known Leicester was a great town," said Lorraine Lyon, who grew up here as a member of the Burtt family, "but it took something like this for me to see how really great it is."

Lorraine Lyon said the two-story wood frame house at 75 Lake Ave. was destroyed. Fire Department officials said the fire apparently was ignited by ashes from a wood-burning stove.

Barry Lyon was alone in the house at the time and he got out safely, but two cats - one of them almost 10 years old - died in the fire.

"I haven't cried for the cats yet, but I will," Lorraine said yesterday. "Right now I'm just thankful that no one else was killed or hurt."

Mr. and Mrs. Lyon and two of their three children resided in the house.

She and son Timothy, age 27, were at work when the fire broke out and daughter Melanie, age 21, was at Lasell College in Newton, where she is a student. The couple's third child, daughter Kristie, age 23, lives and works in Connecticut.

The family moved into the Leicester home of Lorraine's sister and brother-in-law, Sheila and Edward C. Barlow, but are looking for rental property where they can live until a new house can be built on the Lake Avenue site.

"We are definitely going to rebuild," Lorraine said, "but we will have to have the old house taken right down to the foundation before we can start."

One bit of good news, she said, is that two adjusters have already looked at the family's house insurance and both agreed that their policy provided very good coverage.

Lorraine said she has already been in the old house trying to find objects that could be saved, but there weren't many of those.

"But there was one amazing thing," she said. "Last summer I was cleaning out some memorabilia and I put the items in two plastic bins that I had placed under our bed. When I went back to the house, I looked under the bed and those two bins were sitting there untouched while the television set a couple of feet away had melted. The bins contained all the albums of pictures taken when the children were younger - things that we could never replace if they had been lost."