‘We’re not rebuilding alone’: Winfield family overwhelmed by generosity in wake of devastating fire

Chris and Alex Tiritilli were vacationing in Florida with their children July 3 when they received a frantic phone call from Alex's cousin, Gaby, screaming that the couple's Winfield home was ablaze.

During the hours that followed, the couple clung to the hope that part of their home could be saved, but updates and photos confirmed their worst fears. By the time the firefighters extinguished the fire, their Tudor-style home was a complete loss.

“In just a few hours, everything we had built over the years — our home, our belongings and so many irreplaceable memories — were gone,” Alex Tiritilli said via email. “It's hard to put into words what that feels like.”

Security cameras showed lightning striking the home about midnight on July 3. Gaby, who lives in a coach home on the property, arrived home about 30 minutes later and detected a bonfire smell. She walked around the house but noted nothing amiss, Tiritilli said, unable to see that a fire had started inside.

Two hours later, Alex and her family received the life-altering call, alerting them about the loss not only of their home but the family's beloved pets, after a wall of smoke prevented her cousin from rescuing them.

“We are absolutely devastated,” Tiritilli of said of the family’s Labradoodle, Luna, and tuxedo cat, Sully. “They were members of our family. They brought so much love, comfort, and joy into our home and their absence is something we feel every single day.”

Now friends and colleagues — including parishioners from St. Michael Catholic Church in Wheaton and Montini Catholic High School in Lombard, where Chris Tiritilli serves as principal — are rallying around the family.

Family friends Kristen Santangelo and Margaret Machemer established a GoFundMe online fundraiser, which had raised $171,150 as of Monday afternoon. St. Michael's school is collecting store gift cards in a secure mailbox outside door 1 to help with the family's day-to-day needs.

“We knew so many people would want to support Alex, Chris, and their family, and GoFundMe was the quickest and easiest way to reach our community and give people an opportunity to make an immediate impact,” Santangelo said via email.

That generosity “is a powerful reminder of how people come together during times of crisis,” she said.

The outpouring of kindness and support has been both humbling and overwhelming, said Tiritilli, who expressed gratitude to family, friends, neighbors and first responders. She vows to one day repay their kindness.

“Their kindness has carried us through some of the hardest days of our lives, and we will never forget it,” she said, adding that the family is especially grateful to Santangelo and Machemer for “lifting a tremendous weight off our shoulders when we needed it the most.”

Gone now are the mementos that told the family's life story: heirlooms passed down from generations, photographs, Chris Tiritilli's guitar collection, their kids' newborn keepsakes, Alex's engagement ring.

“We still have each other, and for that we are incredibly grateful,” Alex Tiritilli said. “We know how differently this story could have ended if we had been home that night.”

The family is living temporarily with Alex's family while making plans to rebuild in Winfield, which Tiritilli describes as “the very best of what a community can be.”

“Thanks to the love, support, and generosity we've experienced, we know we're not rebuilding alone,” she said.