Back in August, we reported that the chef and talk show host Rachael Ray’s home in upstate New York had burned down. Now, Ray is speaking out to give fans an update on how the process of rebuilding it is going.
Entertainment Tonight reported that Ray said on her eponymous talk show that while the rebuild is “well underway,” it could take close to a year to complete.
“They took it all away and that was very hard,” she said of the burned pieces of her house. “We had to watch out the back window while we were making the show with you guys.”
Ray added that her home looked pretty bleak once the charred remains were removed.
“Then there was a giant rectangular hole in the ground that looked like the abyss,” she said. “Now they’re doing the outside framing, so it looks like there’s a footprint of a house again which is great. But there won’t be a house finished there until probably next May.”
Weeks after the fire, Ray opened up about how she was dealing with this tragedy.
“It was just a shock when it actually happened,” Ray recalled. “I mean, you can’t imagine it. Our house is only 15 years old and we have our chimney cleaned twice a year. And literally it was just the chimney … and then the whole house literally burned down. I think initially we were just in shock. We listened to our first responders and we left with the clothes on our back and the flip-flops and Ugg shoes on our feet.”
After the fire, Ray took to Twitter to thank her fans for all their support, love, and prayers in the wake of this tragedy.
“Thank you to our local first responders for being kind and gracious and saving what they could of our home,” the seasoned television personality wrote at the time. “Grateful that my mom, my husband, my dog… we’re all okay.”
“These are the days we all have to be grateful for what we have, not what we’ve lost,” Ray added.
Investigators have concluded that the fire was accidental and started in the fireplace chimney. The state Office of Fire Prevention and Control confirmed that the fire sent flames through the roof of the home, which is located at the end of a private drive in a rural area about 60 miles north of Albany.
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