'I've got to get out of here': Green woman recalls flight from fire in home, business

Pat Stiles considers herself lucky to be alive.

On May 17, a fire swept through parts of her home in Green where the family barbershop had operated since 1967.

More: 'Thankful for this day': Historic Green schoolhouse reopens after arson left it in ruins

The retired teacher, who remains active in Green Good Neighbors and the city’s restored Lichtenwalter Schoolhouse, said Wednesday she almost didn’t make it.

She was upstairs getting ready for bed when the smoke alarm went off. Another 10 or 15 minutes and she would have been asleep and never heard the alarm.

She's not a light sleeper, she said.

“If I had gotten to sleep, you wouldn’t be talking to me now,” she said.

Startled by the alarm, Stiles walked down the stairs to the kitchen and saw flames.

“They were down, close to the floor,” she said.

'I've got to get out of here'

Smoke crept up the stairs, and Stiles was overwhelmed as she processed what was happening. At one point, she froze, knowing she needed to call 911.

“How did the fire get here?” she said. “All at once, I thought, ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’”

Stiles exited through the barbershop, safe from the fire but forced out of her home of more than 50 years.

It wasn’t the first time a fire caused her grief, she said. In 2016, the Lichtenwalter Schoolhouse was set ablaze by arsonists. Stiles taught classes there, showing elementary school students what school was like long before the era of computers and cellphones or even automobiles.

“I just sat down and cried when the schoolhouse went down,” Stiles said. “But this is much more traumatic.”

Help from a stranger

Outside her home, Stiles was helped by a man who pulled up and offered assistance.

“(He) asked me: ‘Do you have any relatives here in Green?’ ” she said.

He offered to take her to her youngest son’s home, but still in shock, Stiles couldn’t remember his address.

“I could not think of the street,” she said.

She waited with the man, still in her pajamas, as firefighters and her family arrived on scene.

Nancy Hall, one of Stiles’ four children, found out about the fire when a brother called.

“Mom’s house is on fire,” her brother told Hall. “Get down there.”

He’d seen a posting about the fire on the 330ToGo social media page, she said.

More than 50 years of memories

As of Wednesday, Stiles was waiting for an estimate on repairs — or even if the house was considered repairable. She wants to reopen the barbershop for two barbers employed there.

“We would rather restore than replace,” Hall said.

Stiles and Hall said some items that can’t be replaced were destroyed in the fire — the keys to Stiles' car and camper, for one. The upstairs bathroom that had recently been renovated, for another.

But the memories remain intact.

Stiles said she and her husband returned to Ohio in 1967 after eight years in Florida, looking for a home that could serve as his barbershop.

Having difficulty, they considered a return to Okeechobee before finding the house at the corner of Greensburg and Massillon roads to raise their four young children. Stiles Barber Shop — started as Ray’s — was run by her husband, who had a heart transplant in the early 1990s.

“We always had to be quiet in the house because they could hear us in the shop,” Hall said.

Stiles remembers a 1917 newspaper she found stuffed in a windowsill to block a draft. Her father’s 100th birthday celebration. Her grandparents’ antique tea cup set, feared lost in the fire but found on Wednesday. The camper stored in the large garage — “Stiles Pavilion” — that hauled extended family to every state in the U.S. except Hawaii.

Help from the Green community

Since the fire, the community Stiles has spent her years helping is helping back. A GoFundMe page — www.gofundme.com/f/fire-restoration-for-pat-stiles — had raised more than $8,000 by Friday morning to help restore the home and barbershop.

Numerous people have offered assistance. She said she reached into the pockets of a donated jacket and found two $50 bills left there to help out. The person who donated the item said nothing about the cash.

“They have been so wonderful,” she said.

Despite the disruption the fire has caused, Stiles remains concerned about the barbers — Tom and T.C. — who worked at Stiles Barber Shop.

“I want to help the boys,” she said.

They’ve taken positions at Portage Lakes Barber & Styling, and Stiles hopes they will return if the business can be restored.

For now, Stiles is staying with Hall while the fate of the family home is determined.

But there’s a time limit, Hall said, although it’s a generous one.

“I’m giving her 21 years,” Hall said. “After that, she’s on her own.”

Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Minutes from sleep, alarm alerts Stiles Barber Shop owner to fire