“An unusual brand of bad luck seems to have been passed down through the generations in Sandia Jensen’s family.When her grandmother was a little girl, the entire small Minnesota town where she lived burned to the ground. Jensen’s mother was a teen-ager when her family home was consumed by fire.In early August, Jensen got her cruel inheritance when a seemingly innocent stove-top fire quickly got out of hand and completely destroyed her family’s home and everything in it.Today, Jensen, her 8-year-old son Alexander and her fiance, Frank Torres, are living in a broken-down cabin they are renting from the same landlord. They say they are barely getting by, relying on the kindness of family and friends for the basic essentials and transportation.The worst part of the fire, Jensen said, was that Alexander lost his home, all his toys and much of his childish innocence about life.The hardest part was hearing my son screaming, ‘Mommy you can make it stop,’ she said. But in about 15 minutes, the inferno swallowed their home.It was the most horrible thing I have ever gone through, she said, especially as a parent having to watch my son’s face.The feeling of fear and futility is still with Jensen, who easily breaks into tears when recalling that night. Jensen said they were cooking a late supper on the propane stove when the fire caught.Torres says he battled the fire until his lungs hurt so bad he had to get out. It wasn’t until a day later that he realize he had burned his leg.By the time fire trucks were called and arrived, the house was a ball of fire. Central Whidbey Fire Chief Joe Biller said the fire was extremely hot and fast and fighting it was a complicated and potentially very dangerous exercise. Three cars parked next to the house caught fire and a live power line went down on the road, spitting electricity at the firefighters.The landscape in early August was very dry, so Biller said he was very alarmed when the 40 acres of woods that surround the house started burning. To avoid disaster, he pulled out all stops and called in reinforcements. In all, 18 Central Whidbey volunteer firefighters were joined by four firefighters from District 3 and a crew from the state Department of Natural Resources. There were five engines and three water tenders at the scene. They sprayed 11,500 gallons of water that night.It was ‘surround and drown,’ Biller said. It takes a lot of water to get rid of that kind of heat. The family lost treasures in the fire. Jensen’s small but sentimental collection of antique dictionaries, her grandmother’s school picture and a 100-year-old table her grandfather made in the ninth grade are all gone.Torres was starting a tree-trimming business and had been buying equipment. The fire wiped it all out.The couple even had to spend the money they saved to start the business on renting a backhoe and cleaning up the embers of their home.While they are obviously thankful to be alive, getting back on their feet again – both emotionally and financially – has been difficult, especially since they’re relative newcomers to the island. They moved to Whidbey from Mukilteo just last spring.The American Red Cross of Island County helped with immediate needs. Citizens Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse supplied them with a washer and dryer. A couple who they only recently befriended them helped all they could. Jensen’s mother came to their rescue, helping them create a make-shift home from an abandoned and trash-filled cabin on the land. But others, Jensen said, have been rather bad Samaritans.Either people have been very, very kind or jumped on and taken advantage of the situation, she said.But like her mother and grandmother before her, Jensen says she’s going to bounce back from this hardship and her family is going to be stronger than ever. We knew that things like this can be hard on a relationship, she said. So Frank and I decided to focus on each other’s needs.This renewed commitment and love, she said, turned out to be the silver lining she’s been looking for. “