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After the blaze, it's silence that hurts

To this family, music was life. When fire struck, they lost not only their home, but also their musical instruments, which backed up their dreams.

By MOISES MENDOZA
Published June 30, 2006

When the flames finished tearing through Heather and Karl Buschena's double-wide mobile home last week, the house was a heap of blackened rubble.

And so were their dreams.

Heather, 25, and Karl, 28, were two-thirds of a local heavy metal band, Obstrep. Their guitars and a music mixer were charred by the flames. Their 10-year-old son, Christian, lost his bass guitar and a drum kit, too.

To the Buschenas, music was life. Now they have nothing but each other.

"We're a very musical family," Heather Buschena said. "Next to losing the house, losing the instruments has been the most painful thing."

In their world of music, Heather is known as "Grind" and Karl as "Koal." Their Web site shows the two dressed in black, posing behind Chris Buschena, Karl's 24-year-old brother, who is known as "Stilzkin."

In real life, Heather is a stay-at-home mom and Karl is an electrician. He says he and Chris, also an electrician, knew there were problems with the wiring in the home. But they never expected a fire.

Heather was home with the kids June 23 when the fire broke out about 10:30 a.m. Karl was at work. Although fire officials know the blaze was electrical in origin, they don't know what sparked it.

Five-year-old Destiny and 2-year-old Jaden had been playing hide and seek in a crawl space and were stuck there as the flooring started to catch fire.

Heather yanked at Destiny's legs, pulling her out. She used laundry to smother the flames licking the floorboards below the crawl space. It took five long minutes for Jaden to crawl or fall out, her mother doesn't know which.

Heather scooped up Jaden and ran from the house trailed by Destiny, 7-year-old Kattie and a nearly naked Christian, who had been getting ready to take a shower.

By now, most of the house was aflame. Heather rapped on neighbors' doors and someone called 911. Firefighters couldn't save the house. Within minutes it had burned to the ground.

The family had lived in the tan and white double-wide since 2002. The night before the fire, Karl and Heather had stayed up all night talking about taking out a loan to make cosmetic repairs.

Now every member of the family is wondering where they will live - and how they'll bring the music back.

And Karl and Heather remember how music brought the family together. The children often came to Obstrep's practices. And when Christian played his bass guitar, the other kids sometimes banged pots and pans to the beat.

Obstrep was busy making plans to play area gigs and come up with some new music.

But for now, survival comes first.

[Last modified June 30, 2006, 10:30:42]