Wilson, NY – Family photos. A set of keys. An undamaged T-shirt. At least one wallet with personal papers inside.
A day after an explosion obliterated the home of Jody and Judith Johnson, killing one of their daughters and leaving a second with burns over most of her body, about 40 people from throughout this town spent Wednesday sifting through the rubble.
The volunteers knew they could never hope to replace what the family had lost. But while they struggle with their own grief and heartbreak, they hoped to be able to offer the devastated family a few items that had made their house on 4972 Chestnut Road a home for four years after they returned to the United States from Germany.
“This is Wilson,” said Jake Adams, junior varsity soccer coach of Sarah Johnson, 14, who was killed in the explosion. “It’s a small town, and this is what Wilson does.”
The outpouring of love and support began within hours of the tragedy.
“The Lord is just leaning on people’s hearts,” Ida Mae Waters, a parishioner at Wilson First Baptist Church, said as she described “a mountain” of clothes and personal items that were donated to the family within hours of Tuesday morning’s explosion.
Wednesday, investigators said they were still trying to determine a cause of the explosion. Particular attention was focused on a propane tank that had served the house.
Mixed in with the outpouring of support for the Johnsons was a palpable communal feeling of loss as friends and neighbors deal with Sarah’s death.
Wilson Middle School art teacher and basketball coach Brian Baker was among the dozens who gathered at Erie County Medical Center on Wednesday to be with or near the four members of the Johnson family who are recovering there.
Baker said many young people from Wilson have been gathering at the hospital to support one another other and share stories.
“They are one of the best families I’ve come in contact with in teaching and in coaching,” Baker said.
He said Sarah’s last project in his art class was a ceiling tile showing a jungle and jungle animals. The project will now become a permanent part of his classroom.
“There was just a radiance about her – her smile, her respect for others,” said Amy Seeley, her eighth-grade English teacher. “Their family was always more than willing to do anything to help anyone in need. They’ve always given so much.”
The Johnson family – father Jody, mother Judith and children Katie, 18; twins Nathan and Hannah, 16; Sarah; and Sam, 10 – moved back to the United States from Germany five years ago, spending a year in Vermont with Judith’s family before coming to Wilson.
Both parents are Army veterans. They met in 1990, during Operation Desert Storm. Judith Johnson is a nurse who works for Niagara Hospice. Her husband served in the Army for more than 22 years, according to his close friend, Sam Parise.
Jody, Judith, Katie and Nathan Johnson were rescued after the explosion and fire. Two other children who were with friends the night of the explosion remain with those friends. Parise said he will take the family in or find them a house when they leave the hospital.
More than three dozen friends and classmates visited the Johnsons at ECMC on Tuesday and Wednesday. A few have been able to visit Nathan, who was listed in fair condition, while Jody Johnson was listed as stable. Katie remains in intensive care, with burns over 75 percent of her body, but is expected to recover, Parise said. He said Judith Johnson, who had been listed as stable, was moved back to intensive care, but is getting better after suffering a seizure Tuesday night.
Parise, owner of Parise Construction in the Town of Tonawanda, organized the cleanup of the explosion site. He and co-workers, family, friends and neighbors – nearly 40 in all – spent part of Tuesday night and about four hours Wednesday sifting through the ruins looking for Johnson family mementos. The search had to be stopped when fire insurance investigators closed and secured the site.
Before they left, volunteers found mounds of pictures, books, keys, electronics and at least one wallet with personal papers. Nearly a dozen bags of undamaged clothing were packed up, and a local laundry volunteered to clean the clothes.
Eight trays of donated pizzas showed up unannounced as the crews were leaving about lunchtime.
Parise said that he and Jody Johnson grew up together on Witmer Road in Wheatfield and that both graduated from Niagara Wheatfield High School. Johnson’s father, David, still lives in the town. His mother, Nora, was killed in a house fire about 10 years ago.
Parise said he convinced his friend to come back to Western New York and work for him at Parise Construction, as a pipe fitter. He said the Johnson family chose Wilson because of its school district and church community. The family is active both at Wilson Central School and Ransomville Free Methodist Church.
“The Johnsons baby-sat my kids,” Parise said, adding that his children, 10 and 12, had played with Sarah and that they broke down during a prayer vigil Tuesday night.
“They are having a hard time understanding this,” he said.
Representatives of the American Red Cross Serving Erie & Niagara Counties met with the Johnson family Wednesday and offered vouchers for temporary housing, food and clothing, as well as emotional support.
“As their immediate emergency needs are met, the Red Cross will continue to work with the family to assist them in putting together a longer-term recovery plan,” the agency said in a statement.
Those looking to help the family with their new financial needs can make a donation in care of the Johnson Family Fund at First Niagara Bank in Wilson or mail a donation to the bank at P.O. Box 375, Wilson, NY 14172. Cash and gift cards are being accepted at Ransomville Free Methodist Church, 3924 Ransomville Road, Ransomville, NY 14131 and Wilson First Baptist Church, 265 Pettit St., Wilson, NY 14172.
“If this would have happened to someone else, Katie would be the one we’d go to,” said Katie Johnson’s best friend, Kaitlyn Bowers. “She was the rock. Now all of us are pulling together for her.”