After losing everything they own in a house fire Oct. 2, Pat and Nick Rossi are trying to move forward. But they can’t help looking back.

“It’s really hard to get over it,” Pat Rossi, 53, said. “I’m still in shock.”

The three-bedroom house that Pat and her husband, Nick, 58, lived in for the past 28 years on Quaker Ridge Road in Casco caught fire in the afternoon Oct. 2, destroying everything they owned but leaving them and their dog uninjured. Without insurance, Pat and Nick Rossi feel overwhelmed by their loss.

Pat Rossi’s employer and a friend of the couple are spearheading efforts to gather donations of money and goods.

“We’re overwhelmed by all the help with clothes and commodities and we thank them greatly,” Nick Rossi said. The couple, who lived alone, has three children and five grandchildren.

“I never knew I had so many friends,” Pat Rossi said.

When the Rossi home went up in flames that afternoon, Pat had left for 15 minutes to go to the store. Nick was cooking zucchini in oil on an old electric stove. The thermostat on the stove was faulty, he said, and even though he set the burner to low, it heated up to high.

Nick went to check his e-mail for a few minutes and when he came back into the kitchen, the whole stove was on fire. Not able to reach across the flames to turn off the stove, Nick flipped the breaker.

When he tried to turn on the hose, the electric water pump wasn’t working because the electricity was off.

“I was just in total panic,” Nick Rossi said. “I was screaming outside, ‘fire, fire, my house is on fire’.”

Neighbors heard him and called the fire department, and they arrived in record time, Rossi said. But by the time his wife returned from the store, the house was engulfed in flames.

“It just went up like a matchbook,” she said. “I’m grateful that everyone got out alive.”

Six days later the couple was trying to put a dent in the rubble, sorting charred remains on a sunny October morning. Hands black with charcoal, Nick picked through singed photos of his children and burned out cans.

They planned to try to burn the partially standing house and garage to the ground to then fill in the lot and bring in a mobile home or trailer before the winter. Talking about the fire and all they lost was visibly hard for both of them, and tears came easily.

“It’s overwhelming the work that needs to be done here,” Pat said. “I don’t think we can get this done in time before the snow flies.”

“We’ll get it done, hun,” Nick Rossi said to his wife, surveying the charred rubble.

“I’m just so impatient,” she replied.

They bought the house as a fixer-upper in 1980, Nick said, and since then have built an addition in 2000 and finished the garage last year. Pat, Nick and Nick’s brother built the garage themselves over a year’s time.

“It was a lot of sweat and a lot of sore knees all for it to go up in flames a year later,” Nick Rossi said.

Inside the garage were Nick’s motorcycle and tools. He worked from home as a self-employed welder and computer repairman. It took years to accumulate the tools, Nick said, and they weren’t cheap. Among other things, he lost two welders and four computers he built from scratch.

Pat lost her mother’s wedding jewelry in the fire. “She gave it to me to take care of and I lost it all,” she said. “There are so many things that you can’t replace.”

“The home wasn’t much, but it was home,” Nick Rossi said. “The biggest issue is the shock of having no home now. It’s something you take for granted.”

How to help

There will be a potluck dinner and fundraiser at Shakers Bar and Grille on Route 11 in Naples on Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. to benefit the Rossi family. Items and services from local businesses will be raffled off throughout the night. The cost to attend is $15 per person and $25 per couple, with children 12 and under admitted for free.

Donna Leach, a long time friend of the Rossi family who is organizing the fundraiser, is also taking donations of money, household items, furniture and appliances. Those wishing to donate can call Leach at 627-4194 or 595-0439.

An account has also been set up for donations for the couple at Norway Savings Bank in Naples. Contributions can be made out to the Rossi Family Fund and sent to the Naples branch of Norway Savings Bank, P.O. Box 1455, Naples, ME 04055, Attn: Brenda Day.

Long-time friend of the Rossi family Donna Leach, who is working to raise money and household items to replace what her friends have lost, said it’s overwhelming to think about losing everything.

“They don’t have anything and they have no insurance,” Leach said. “They’re going to need everything.”

The American Red Cross has helped the couple with temporary housing at Alyssa’s Motel and Pat’s employers at White Pines Inn are also working to support the couple, offering them a place to say as long as they need.

Since Mark Libby and his family bought White Pines Inn in May 2007, Pat Rossi has worked there as a housekeeper.

“She’s a great employee,” Libby said. “They’re great people.”

“We just can’t do this all ourselves,” Pat Rossi said, adding that neither of them have been sleeping well. “My boss is excellent, offering us a place to stay but I want to be here in my home.”

“We’ve got no choice but to move forward,” Nick Rossi said. “It’s an overwhelming job that we have ahead of us.”

Another house fire damaged a home at 19 Abenaki Acres in Naples Tuesday morning. Though the house wasn’t a total loss, it was damaged enough to be unlivable, according to Naples Fire Chief Chris Pond.

No one was home at the time of the fire except for dogs and cats, which were killed in the blaze.

The fire started in a downstairs room, Pond said, and spread up the outside of the building. Firefighters from Naples, Casco, Raymond and Sebago spent around 25 minutes getting the fire under control and the second floor suffered smoke damage, but not fire damage. State Fire Marshall’s are investigating the cause of the fire.

Pat and Nick Rossi pick through the remains of the house lived in for 28 years in Casco, which burned on Oct. 2. Nick and Pat Rossi pick through singed photos of family members, which were some of the only possessions that survived a devastating fire in their Casco home.