Rachael Ray shares photos of devastating house fire: 'This is what's left'
Rachael Ray opened up about last month’s fire that destroyed her home in upstate New York. The celebrity chef shared personal footage of the aftermath on the Rachael Ray Show where she also discussed fire safety.
“This is what’s left of our house, today,” Ray tweeted ahead of the Season 15 premiere. While nearly all of her belongings were destroyed, Ray said her family is “grateful and mindful of how fortunate we are in many ways.”
This is what’s left of our house, today. Sharing our story + what we’ve learned in a very unusual @rachaelrayshow premiere. Thank you to all our first responders, viewers + friends for their unending support. We are very grateful and mindful of how fortunate we are in many ways. pic.twitter.com/lv18pTIkpI
— rachael ray (@rachaelray) September 14, 2020
Ray, her husband, John Cusimano, and their dog were safely able to escape the house on Chuckwagon Trail in Lake Luzerne when it went up in flames.
“On August 9th, my house burned. 15 years of memories; 40 years of notebooks, drawings, thoughts, my life's work,” Ray began at the top of her show, via USA Today. “It took about one hour for this house to come down – and in my mind, it took decades before it was even built. In the years that I lived here, I learned an awful lot. In the few weeks since it burned I think I've learned even more. Today we're going to share what's left of our home with you.”
Ray revealed the fire began in the chimney, which she said was cleaned twice a year. The chef — who has owned the house since 2013 — said she prepared a fire in the fireplace ahead of dinner. Before they sat down, a man “screamed” and alerted them the roof was on fire.
“A person was going through our backyard on an ATV and was kind enough to come down the hill and say, ‘Your roof's on fire.’ Literally screaming it in our backyard,” Ray said. “We went outside, sure enough, that was the case.”
Ray ran upstairs to get “precious things” like “medicines, photographs, notebooks.”
“I heard the fire in the walls,” she added. “It was blood-curdling and chilling from head to toe. I turn to leave and there was a first responder right in front of me, ‘Get out, get out now. You have to go.’”
“I went to get the dog, and that was it,” she continued. “We left our house.”
Ray’s husband joined Monday’s show and talked about the devastation.
“The night that the fire happened, we literally were just watching our house burn and burn and burn,” he recalled. “It wouldn't stop. You’re just thinking, ‘Oh God, what's going to be left?’ Then we went up there the next day... and there's devastation everywhere. We were like, ‘Oh my God, there's no house left.’’”
Ray frequently showed off her dream home and its amazing kitchen. “I drew this house on a piece of paper and decorated it before it was ever built,” she shared on Rachael Ray in April. The home will need to be bulldozed and rebuilt over the course of about a year. They are currently staying in a guest house across the street where she’s filming her show.
