Out of ashes comes a new life.

That’s Deborah Brown’s hope for her family.

A practice burn set by Island County Fire District 3 volunteers July 5 destroyed a condemned double-wide mobile home at the Freeland woman’s Bercot Road and Shore Avenue property. At the same time, the fire made room for something.

Brown is grateful for the fire department’s help in burning the condemned structure. It takes her one step closer to building a new home on the property.

Life has not been easy for Brown’s family. She and her four children — ages 4, 9, 10 and 15 — have been living in a motorhome on her property in Freeland. Brown received the property as settlement in a domestic violence case. But the structure on the property was unlivable, and condemned by the Island County Health Department. The house could not be occupied, so Brown and her children moved into the motorhome until they could find a way to make a real home.

The motorhome is equipped with bunks and is hooked up to utilities on the site.

“Surprisingly we have been pretty comfortable, but it is crowded,” Brown said.

All along, Brown’s goal has been a home for her children, but it has been a goal long in achieving.

With an income she calls “limited,” everything takes time. The cost of tearing down the mobile home was prohibitive, although she did hire a crew from Whidbey Topsoil to clear the debris following the fire.

The cost of removing a mobile home from a site can run as high as $10,000 if it needs to be disassembled on site, and about half that much if it can be towed away.

By comparison, the clean-up after the fire will run Brown less than $1,000.

“It really helped us a lot to have the fire department burn the old place down,” Brown said.

While the debris was cleared away this week, Brown was still living on the property, but sent her children to stay with an older sister in Everett.

“I didn’t want them to see this mess. It would be too upsetting,” she said. “And, of course my nine-year old son would just want to play in the mess, which would be too dangerous.”

Having the old structure gone, she is starting to do what it takes to get a new home.

Brown, who has received a bank loan to start over on the property, plans to buy a newer manufactured home for the site

“They tell me it will take about 60 days to get a home in place and ready to live in,” Brown said.

She expects to move in before school in September.

Brown’s boyfriend, Lewis Ysen, an electrician, plans to helping the family get the new home set up.