We went to see them at the hospital on Thursday Sep.26th (husband Bengt and brothers Håkan and Anders had been there Wednesday too) and they were having problems with their lungs because of all the smoke. Mattias had no burns, but he said that the outer ends of his hair fell off, when he tried to comb himself. Little Sven had a burn on his nose, a small patch on his forehead, a lot on his left hand and a deep thing on his right shoulder. Ylva had broken three toes the week before, which did not help, and she had hurt her hand and her right elbow and some minor things on other places.

During the fire Mattias more or less threw Sven out the window onto the porch roof, then came after him and jumped down on the lawn and told Sven to jump to him. When Sven got down, a neighbor took him and threw him over the fence to his wife, and she ran into their house with him. In the meantime she figured he needed something cold on the burn on the shoulder, so she put him on the couch and got out a packet of frozen cheese(!), and placed that on his shoulder. Later the doctors said that the cheese had helped preventing deeper wounds, so it was just the right thing to do.

All this happened within seconds from that Carin, living downstairs, but not yet asleep, opened her door to go to the bathroom. She noticed the smoke and started yelling to her parents and brothers upstairs, which got Mattias awake. Then she went back to her room, closed the door and went out through her window. She has no burns or anything, and did not have to stay at the hospital, but has been living with her uncle in Säter since.

When Mattias got Sven out, Ylva tried to get hold of Richard, who might already have been disoriented by the smoke, he was also hard of hearing, and she could not find him at once. She went out of the door to the balcony, the same way Mattias and Sven had got out, for just some air, and when she turned to go in in, it was too hot and she could not do it, but had to come down on the porch roof and down a ladder that was there by now. When she was on the porch roof the fire exploded, and there was no way anyone could have have saved Richard, who was probably already dead.

The neighbors said that the flames came horizontally out of the windows, not going up but sideways, and Mattias said they were white, which is a very high temperature.

So it was just a matter of seconds and they would all have died. That is a terrible thought, and I am truly grateful that they were spared.

They were at the hospital until Monday afternoon (Sept. 30), when they were released and I went to Falun to pick them up. Ylva and Sven went by a "sjukbil", which was good as they could take most of the stuff kind people had brought them, and I and Mattias rode in his aunt Siv's car. And the aunt has put them up in her house in Hedemora since then, as they do no have any beds in their new home.

The local public housing company has found them a nice apartment just down the road from Sven's school, but it started out fairly empty, so now family and friends are busy trying to get stuff together for them. Bengt came yesterday from home with lots of his mother's stuff (pots and pans and kitchen ware), lamps, towels and whatever. And we have also promised to go to IKEA and buy beds for them, and take them up there on Friday, so they can start living on their own again, and try to get their life together again.

Sven's glasses were destroyed, but he got his new ones yesterday, and the great scab on his nose fell off, so he was happy with that.

They don't quite know how the fire started, but suspect faulty old wiring in the living room ceiling, which was directly under the boys' room, where they think it started. Also their smoke detector did not work. They say they had one, but never heard it.

Mattias' daughter Isabella was at home with her mother in Upplands Bro, when all this happened, as it was during the school week. Isabella was very fond of Richard, so this has hit her hard too. She has been visiting after the fire and was relieved to see that the rest of her family was OK.

Monday Oct.7, 2002
Mattias and family have now moved into their new home, which has been furnished by family and friends. They have been really kindly supported by the local people of Vikmanshyttan. Some Scout mothers even filled their fridge and freezer.

They are feeling fairly well physically, but the memory of the fire and the loss of young Richard is something that will stay with them for ever.

Richard was a nice young man with many intellectual interests, he was a good computer guy, fond of reading books, interested in history and lately he had started to do some genealogy, and came with me the Genealogy Days in Borlänge at the end of August and we had a good time. We also planned to go to a microfiche research center to really get started on this... Both boys had joined the Scouts this year, and they went to a camp in the forest in the summer, and had a good time. Richard had good grades in school, and his goal was to become a librarian or doctor of literary history.

The address is Thorsell-Elvhammar family, Smedgatan 2, S-776 70 Vikmanshyttan, Sweden.