The fire happened on the morning of what would have been the closing night of The
Addams Family. Hailey Willis, director and acting coach at LAFA, had to deliver the hard
news to the children in the show that they wouldn’t be able to do their closing
performance.
“When Sarah called me to tell me about the fire, I was in shock. Within minutes I was
out the door and driving to the theatre,” said Willis. “The whole ride there I was in panic.
I immediately felt so bad for our students, specifically all of the cast members in The
Addams Family musical.”
Ilijanich said the fire most likely happened when lightning hit an old exhaust fan in
the attic of the building. The fan, which none of the staff knew existed, would have started
to smoulder when the lightning hit it and then spread.
When she arrived on the scene, Ilijanich saw about seven fire trucks working to put
out the flames.
“The fire department was amazing,” said Ilijanich. “They came and they caught it,
but there still is a lot of structural damage.”
The area of the building most affected by the fire was the stage itself. There was also
major damage to the roof, leaving a large hole in the building. Costumes and props were
burned beyond repair and smoke damage affected the theatre, costume room and other
parts of the building. There were about $300,000 in damages caused by the fire and LAFA
has also had to cancel nine more shows they had planned.
Although the news of the fire devastated everyone involved with the theatre, it didn’t
take them long to get back on their feet. Two weeks later, after the damages had been
assessed and they were allowed to see their building again, LAFA organized Operation
Clean Sweep to start the process of getting the company back up and running.
More than 100 volunteers came out with their sleeves rolled up, ready to be put to
work. Many of them were children involved with LAFA.
“Our family of kids and parents are so resilient and amazing,” said Ilijanich. “The
amount of support we have received is incredible, and I am so grateful.”
Charred props, broken set pieces and damaged costumes were scattered around the
building in need of cleaning and sorting. The stage was covered in debris and a trail of
ashes lined the carpet behind the scenes.
Caiden Finlay, who has been with LAFA for three years, said the toughest job of the
day was cleaning the soot off the larger set pieces. But that didn’t keep him from having
fun with his friends throughout the whole five hour cleanup project.
In fact, it didn’t stop anyone from having fun. Despite the cold rain the day brought