A terrifying predawn fire that destroyed the Bellevue, Washington home of local Chabad emissaries ended in what community members are calling an open miracle, after the rabbi managed to wake seven young camp counselors trapped on the second floor in time for them to leap from the windows to safety, seconds before the entire house was engulfed in flames.
The fire broke out around 5 a.m. Saturday at the Bellevue home of Rabbi Sholom Elishevitz, his wife Chaya, and their family, which also serves as a gathering place for the local Jewish community. Seven summer camp counselors who were visiting from out of state were staying on the second floor of the home following a festive Friday night Shabbat meal that had marked the opening of the summer season for the CTeen camp.
Rabbi Elishevitz, who woke to the sound of the fire and the smell of thick smoke, acted quickly, first leading his wife and children out of the burning structure.
He then went back into the flames and heavy smoke in an effort to rescue the sleeping counselors upstairs. By the time he reached them, the main staircase had already been blocked off entirely by fire, leaving the young women no choice but to jump one after another from the second floor windows to the ground below. Within moments of their escape, the entire structure was consumed and became, in effect, a fire trap, ultimately burning to the ground.
No one was seriously injured, though the Rabbi suffered minor burns to his hands and smoke inhalation, while the seven camp counselors also escaped with minor injuries. Rabbi Mordechai Farkash, director of the Eastside Torah Center, said everybody survived, describing the house as completely ruined and reduced to ashes.
The fire left the Elishevitz family, who have served the Bellevue Jewish community for nearly two decades through the Eastside Torah Center, without a home or any belongings, with their possessions, clothing and documents all lost in the blaze.
Elishevitz directs teen programming at the Eastside Torah Center, including the CTeen Jewish summer camp, and runs a Jewish day school and Montessori preschools in the Seattle area together with his wife. Farkash, who has led the Eastside Torah Center for the better part of two decades, said the home had been open for nearly 20 years to thousands of students, teenagers and community members, and called the loss a heavy blow for the entire community, while expressing deep gratitude that no lives were lost.
Despite the trauma and total loss of the home, the young counselors reportedly refused to leave Bellevue and return to their own homes. The counselors are now staying with Farkash so that the summer camp could continue as planned, and the program opened on schedule the following Monday for its roughly 100 campers. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, with Bellevue fire officials saying their report has not yet been completed.
An emergency fund has been established by the Eastside Torah Center together with the Elishevitz family to help them rebuild, as the community rallies to support the family's recovery.
