Rachel Standfest, Grand Rapids 36 weeks pregnant woman and husband, Travis, survive home fire as they share their story of survival, triumph and the upcoming birth of their second baby.
A Michigan couple have shared their story of survival and how their desire for a family nearly came undone, amid a home fire one year ago as the couple now await the birth of their second child.
Rachel Standfest, 26 and Travis Standfest, 25, a Grand Rapids, Michigan couple were just weeks away from welcoming their first baby last May and were living at in a makeshift apartment at Travis’ parents barn as they finished work on their dream house nearby.
At 36 weeks pregnant, Rachel Standfest was less than four weeks from her due date when she woke to smoke billowing through the barn downstairs as a raging fire began to make its way upstairs.
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Split second decision
‘Something made me get up and go check the stairs, and all I could see was smoke,’ Rachel told People magazine.
‘I ran back and I shook Travis up and I called my mom.
‘The last thing I remember is Travis punching out the screen window, and I could see my mom in the driveway yelling, ‘Get out now.’
‘That’s last thing I remember for probably two weeks.’
Travis had helped lower his wife out the window and let her go — which he estimated was a 20 foot-drop — leaving her with a skull fracture and a brain bleed when she hit the ground and lost consciousness.
‘It was just fight or flight. In the moment, I know I was scared,’ Rachel told People.
‘I know both of us had a moment of, ‘Oh my word, is this it? Are we going to die?’ But I wasn’t scared to jump out because I knew that’s what we had to do to survive.’
With nobody to help lower him down, Travis had to make an escape through the flames and bolted downstairs to get away.
‘There were seven fire departments. They said it was the hottest fire that they had been to in 27 years, and it burned really quickly. It burned about six feet of space every second once it was fully up and going,’ Travis told People.
The barn’s open door helped fuel the flame — but the door also allowed Travis to also make his desperate escape.
‘If that door wasn’t open, I probably wouldn’t get out,’ he said.
The gift of life
The couple was rushed to the hospital, where doctors decided to perform an emergency caesarian on Rachel.
‘They had to cut through a third-degree burn to do that, and they had never done that before,’ Rachel said.
‘It was like, ‘Nope, we got to make a decision. We’ve got a lot of smart people in the room. What are we going to do?’ And boom, 15, 20 seconds, and Brynlee was out.’
Their daughter was born miraculously healthy, and suffered no ill effects from the fire or her mother’s perilous fall.
Her name, Brynlee, had been picked weeks before the fire — but it wasn’t until afterwards they learned that it was an Old English word meaning ‘burned clearing.’
‘That’s really where the faith portion of it started for I think our families and for me, but it’s like hearing that, it’s not just coincidence,’ Travis said.
While Brynlee was doing well, both Rachel and Travis were put on ventilators and given feeding tubes upon being brought in. It wasn’t until they both were awake that they learned their daughter was born.
Rachel remained in the hospital for nearly a month, while Travis was released after a week.
After a year of help from friends and family, Rachel and Travis say they’re ‘so blessed because we’re alive and we’re here.’
The couple are now expecting their second baby.
