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The celebrity chef, her husband John Cusimano, her mother Elsa Scuderi, and the family’s dog, Bella Boo, were in their Lake Luzerne house, located in Warren County in the Adirondacks, on Sunday, Aug. 9, when the fire broke. It left the main house on the property with extensive damage.
Ray had been taping her show from the home, located about 60 miles north of Albany, since April due to the COVID-19 outbreak with Cusimano producing and operating the camera.
Crews from more than a dozen local departments responded to the Chuckwagon Drive home shortly before 7:30 p.m. Aug. 9, working for several hours until the fire was controlled.
The flames completely engulfed the home and could be seen shooting through the roof of the home in a video posted online. Since there are no fire hydrants near the home, firefighters had to use pond water.
Ray, Cusimano, Scuderi and Bella Boo were able to evacuate from the home safely. No firefighters were injured.
“Thank you to our local first responders for being kind and gracious and saving what they could of our home," Ray wrote on Twitter on Monday, Aug. 10. "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,” she posted.
On Friday, Aug. 21, the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control said it had determined that the fire was accidental and started in a fireplace chimney.
The roof and second floor were heavily damaged. The first floor sustained water damage, but the state-of-the-art kitchen was not damaged.
After the state released the cause of the blaze, Ray posted her first personalized tweet since the fire, saying: "In last few mos. we lost our dog of 15 yrs (Isaboo, who died on May 19) and our home to fire.
"This wk watching Dems, Republicans, Independents - Americans of all ages and a young man conquering a stutter, our hearts are filled again w love & hope. We are blessed to still have this nation to call home."
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