Scott Van Pelt reflects on house fire

Scott Van Pelt and his family are moving back into their home almost exactly 15 months after the house endured a fire.

This story didn’t get much publicity, but Van Pelt’s home caught fire in April 2023. He discussed it on his SVPod and briefly tweeted about it last Christmas. But six months after his ESPN colleague Mike Breen saw his Long Island home destroyed by a fire , Van Pelt and his family were similarly displaced from their Maryland home. And on the latest episode of his SVPod , Van Pelt shared that he and his family are finally returning home.

“I suppose by the next time we sit and do this, we will have slept in the house again,” Van Pelt said. “I haven’t gotten emotional yet, but at some point, when you look back around, and you think that this journey in your life…which no one got hurt, we lost some stuff, but it’s just stuff, we’ve covered that…When you think about mile markers in your life, hopefully for our kids, as they get older, they’ll look back and say, ‘Remember that year? What grade was I in…remember we lived in that house?’

“I hope in the same way that stuff gets fuzzy with COVID…that was four years ago, that doesn’t even seem real. Hopefully, that’s kind of how this goes. But yeah, there’s a lot going on at the moment; it’s hard to feel like it’s a finish line because there’s just so much to do. It makes you realize time flies, and this one, though, felt at times like we were on a treadmill.”

It was Sunday, April 9, 2023. Van Pelt was at an airport in Georgia preparing to head home from covering the Masters while his wife and kids were in Florida for Easter. Just as he finished taping a Masters recap with Pardon My Take , Van Pelt he received a call from his neighbor who said, “Scott, your house is on fire.”

“There’s certain things a dad should be able to try to do for a family and after that moment when they were like, ‘What happened?’ And to say, ‘I don’t know.’ And ‘Where are we gonna go?’ … ‘I don’t know.’ And ‘When are we gonna come home?’ … ‘I don’t know.’ That was heavy, to not have an answer for your children,” Van Pelt said. “Because they’re looking to you for an answer. But the answer I did have was, ‘Wherever we are, we’re a family. And wherever we go, we’re good. And we’re gonna go home.’ To be able to have that happen and to go home and to be able to say, ‘here we are,’ then you feel gratified that…everything’s alright.”

While reflecting on the incident caused by an electrical issue, Van Pelt repeatedly expressed gratitude over the fact that no one was hurt by the fire. He recognized there are many others who have harder life challenges thrown at them. And while Van Pelt’s gratitude is respectful, there’s no shame in recognizing that what he and his family endured over the last 15 months was a significant life challenge.

[ SVPod ]

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