Wendy Hansen and her fiancé were riding their motorcycles one evening this month when she received a text from her security company: Her house was on fire.
Hansen sped back to her home in Mitchellville, Iowa, sure that her life was about to be disrupted. She had no idea what else awaited her that day.
About 15 minutes into her ride home on July 2, Hansen turned onto a highway ramp and saw smoke rising from her house a few miles away. Distracted, she lost control of her motorcycle and skidded into a grassy patch off the road.
Her fiancé took her home, where firefighters extinguished flames from their burned-down house. Afterward, she rode in an ambulance to a hospital to be treated for injuries from the motorcycle wreck. There, doctors told her she had broken her collarbone and her left shoulder blade.
Then, the 47-year-old said a doctor delivered more crushing news: A CT scan had revealed a cancerous mass on her left kidney.
Hansen, who lost nearly all of her possessions, is still trying to piece her life back together as she speaks with her insurance company about house and motorcycle repairs and embarks on treatment for her injuries and Stage 1 kidney cancer.
“If you would have asked me before this, had I ever had a stressful day, I would’ve been like, ‘Every day is stressful,’” Hansen said. “Now I’m like, ‘You don’t know the meaning of the word.’”
Wendy Hansen's Iowa house burned down on July 2. (KCCI/Screenshot)
Hansen moved from Des Moines to Mitchellville with her fiancé, Russell Farnsworth, in December 2020. They shared the four-bedroom house with three dogs, as well as roughly two dozen sugar gliders and other exotic pets.
On July 2, Hansen said, she woke up around 8:30 a.m., took her dogs outside and fed them, ate a cheese omelet, and went grocery shopping at Hy-Vee and Walmart. She and Farnsworth began their motorcycle ride past cornfields and lakes around 4 p.m. They enjoyed the breeze on a warm afternoon.
As they approached Camp Dodge in Johnston, Iowa, around 5 p.m., Hansen said, she received the text from Vivint, her home security company. She and Farnsworth pulled into the nearest parking lot, where they called Vivint and Hansen’s 20-year-old son, Jacob, who lives a mile from his mother’s house. Jacob ran down the street and said he saw the fire, prompting Hansen to speed away.
About 15 minutes later, Hansen’s Victory Magnum bike hit the grass, and she watched pieces of her motorcycle scatter as she was thrown to the ground. When Hansen stood up, she said, her left shoulder hurt, but her adrenaline masked the pain. She ran to her motorcycle to grab her key and her purse. A few strangers offered to help, but Farnsworth approached minutes later.
“Are you okay?” Hansen recalled him asking.
Hansen hopped on his bike. “Just go,” she told him.
When they approached their house around 5:20 p.m., Hansen said, she heard glass shattering and saw her roof collapsing. Her son told her that firefighters weren’t able to rescue all of her pets. They sat on a curb and cried.
Hansen later learned the fire had started below the house’s deck after an extension cord shorted out.
Hansen’s left shoulder was bruised, and her left knee had a bloody cut. Paramedics strapped her to a stretcher and drove her to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. In the emergency room, doctors took X-rays and a CT scan. When they undressed her, Hansen said, she told them that after the fire, the clothes she had been wearing — along with her black-and-white Puma sneakers — were all she had left.
Doctors closed the gash in her left knee with six stitches. After reading down a list of her other injuries that night, doctors noted one last diagnosis: she had renal cell carcinoma, which develops in the kidney. Hansen was grateful her motorcycle wreck led to doctors catching her cancer early, but the diagnosis frightened her. Her mother, Peggy, had died of that cancer at age 52 in 2004.
Wearing a sling, Hansen was discharged around 1:30 a.m. on July 3, and her son drove her to his house. She said she took pain medicine and pulled a blanket over herself in a recliner, but she couldn’t sleep.
Dozens of questions consumed her: Where do we live? Who do we call? What will we eat? What will I wear? Where do we start? She said she called her insurance company the next day. She also learned that of her pets, 16 sugar gliders had survived.
All Hansen had left were hand-me-down clothes from the hospital, the two cars in her driveway and her purse, which contained her keys, driver’s license, insurance and credit cards, ChapStick and gum.
Hansen and Farnsworth moved into a hotel in Altoona, Iowa, on July 9, but Hansen said she still sleeps in a recliner because of her injuries. She cries without her pets there to cuddle. Needing a distraction, Hansen resumed her work as an accountant for a Des Moines mortgage company Thursday.
Last week, Hansen said, she also saw an oncologist, who said she will probably need to undergo surgery to remove a part of her kidney. Hansen plans to rebuild her house, but renovations could take about a year, she said. In the meantime, she and Farnsworth rented a Mitchellville home that they’ll start living in July 23, and she’s replacing her motorcycle’s damaged parts.
Hansen said she’s thankful for the food, clothes and money her neighbors have donated, but she remains overwhelmed.
“I just have to chip away at this mountainous task of getting my life back,” Hansen said, before correcting herself: “It will never be back, but as close as I can.”
Hansen sped back to her home in Mitchellville, Iowa, sure that her life was about to be disrupted. She had no idea what else awaited her that day.
About 15 minutes into her ride home on July 2, Hansen turned onto a highway ramp and saw smoke rising from her house a few miles away. Distracted, she lost control of her motorcycle and skidded into a grassy patch off the road.
Her fiancé took her home, where firefighters extinguished flames from their burned-down house. Afterward, she rode in an ambulance to a hospital to be treated for injuries from the motorcycle wreck. There, doctors told her she had broken her collarbone and her left shoulder blade.
Then, the 47-year-old said a doctor delivered more crushing news: A CT scan had revealed a cancerous mass on her left kidney.
Hansen, who lost nearly all of her possessions, is still trying to piece her life back together as she speaks with her insurance company about house and motorcycle repairs and embarks on treatment for her injuries and Stage 1 kidney cancer.
“If you would have asked me before this, had I ever had a stressful day, I would’ve been like, ‘Every day is stressful,’” Hansen said. “Now I’m like, ‘You don’t know the meaning of the word.’”
Wendy Hansen's Iowa house burned down on July 2. (KCCI/Screenshot)
Hansen moved from Des Moines to Mitchellville with her fiancé, Russell Farnsworth, in December 2020. They shared the four-bedroom house with three dogs, as well as roughly two dozen sugar gliders and other exotic pets.
On July 2, Hansen said, she woke up around 8:30 a.m., took her dogs outside and fed them, ate a cheese omelet, and went grocery shopping at Hy-Vee and Walmart. She and Farnsworth began their motorcycle ride past cornfields and lakes around 4 p.m. They enjoyed the breeze on a warm afternoon.
As they approached Camp Dodge in Johnston, Iowa, around 5 p.m., Hansen said, she received the text from Vivint, her home security company. She and Farnsworth pulled into the nearest parking lot, where they called Vivint and Hansen’s 20-year-old son, Jacob, who lives a mile from his mother’s house. Jacob ran down the street and said he saw the fire, prompting Hansen to speed away.
About 15 minutes later, Hansen’s Victory Magnum bike hit the grass, and she watched pieces of her motorcycle scatter as she was thrown to the ground. When Hansen stood up, she said, her left shoulder hurt, but her adrenaline masked the pain. She ran to her motorcycle to grab her key and her purse. A few strangers offered to help, but Farnsworth approached minutes later.
“Are you okay?” Hansen recalled him asking.
Hansen hopped on his bike. “Just go,” she told him.
When they approached their house around 5:20 p.m., Hansen said, she heard glass shattering and saw her roof collapsing. Her son told her that firefighters weren’t able to rescue all of her pets. They sat on a curb and cried.
Hansen later learned the fire had started below the house’s deck after an extension cord shorted out.
Hansen’s left shoulder was bruised, and her left knee had a bloody cut. Paramedics strapped her to a stretcher and drove her to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. In the emergency room, doctors took X-rays and a CT scan. When they undressed her, Hansen said, she told them that after the fire, the clothes she had been wearing — along with her black-and-white Puma sneakers — were all she had left.
Doctors closed the gash in her left knee with six stitches. After reading down a list of her other injuries that night, doctors noted one last diagnosis: she had renal cell carcinoma, which develops in the kidney. Hansen was grateful her motorcycle wreck led to doctors catching her cancer early, but the diagnosis frightened her. Her mother, Peggy, had died of that cancer at age 52 in 2004.
Wearing a sling, Hansen was discharged around 1:30 a.m. on July 3, and her son drove her to his house. She said she took pain medicine and pulled a blanket over herself in a recliner, but she couldn’t sleep.
Dozens of questions consumed her: Where do we live? Who do we call? What will we eat? What will I wear? Where do we start? She said she called her insurance company the next day. She also learned that of her pets, 16 sugar gliders had survived.
All Hansen had left were hand-me-down clothes from the hospital, the two cars in her driveway and her purse, which contained her keys, driver’s license, insurance and credit cards, ChapStick and gum.
Hansen and Farnsworth moved into a hotel in Altoona, Iowa, on July 9, but Hansen said she still sleeps in a recliner because of her injuries. She cries without her pets there to cuddle. Needing a distraction, Hansen resumed her work as an accountant for a Des Moines mortgage company Thursday.
Last week, Hansen said, she also saw an oncologist, who said she will probably need to undergo surgery to remove a part of her kidney. Hansen plans to rebuild her house, but renovations could take about a year, she said. In the meantime, she and Farnsworth rented a Mitchellville home that they’ll start living in July 23, and she’s replacing her motorcycle’s damaged parts.
Hansen said she’s thankful for the food, clothes and money her neighbors have donated, but she remains overwhelmed.
“I just have to chip away at this mountainous task of getting my life back,” Hansen said, before correcting herself: “It will never be back, but as close as I can.”
