Falling on ‘Hard Times’: Restaurant rallies around bartender

By Josh Eiserike

Published: May 4, 2008

A little more than a month ago Kristy Dillard's life went up in smoke. Dillard, a 29-year-old single mother of three and bartender at Hard Times Cafe in Woodbridge, said she feels lucky to have been awake when a fire that caused an estimated $125,000 in damages ravaged her Wood-bridge townhouse in March.

The financial impact is especially painful for the 1996 Gar-Field Senior High School graduate because she did not have renter's insurance.

However, she does have a tight-knit support group at Hard Times. The Hard Times "family" helped Dillard salvage some of her belongings from the burned building, they fed Dillard and her children and covered shifts and tip money.

When Hard Times owner Randy Barnette heard about the fire the next day, he said he told Dillard to take time off and let him know what she wanted to do, what she needed.

"We're one big extended family," Barnette, 38, of Bristow, said. "We get angry with each other, we hang out… It's about the kind of people that you have working with you."

Wednesday Hard Times is donating 20 percent of its sales to help Dillard get back on her feet.

"All I want to do, on my end, is supply her with what she needs to get back on her feet and back to normal," Barnette said. "She's just a really strong person… She surprised us all with how well she handled everything."

* * *

Dillard noticed something was wrong at 3 a.m. March 28. She was playing cards with four friends, including fellow Hard Times employee Ashley Zanatta, on the middle floor of a three level Woodbridge town house.

Her three daughters were upstairs, sleeping.

"I smelled rubber burning," Dillard said. "I followed that smell downstairs… I opened the garage door and everything was on fire. I was petrified."

The walls, ceiling and floor were roaring with flames. The intensity of the heat prevented Dillard from viewing the carnage. The garage was where she stored shoes, her kids' summer clothes, her car, bikes, kids' toys and Christmas tree.

"[There was] a smell I've never ever smelled before, it felt like my life was burning," Dillard said.

She headed back upstairs to collect her children and get out. The fire alarm had already awoken her 12-year-old, Mariah. Mariah asked if the alarm went off because her mother was grilling. Dillard told her the house was on fire, "Get your sisters and let's get out."

"I wasn't yelling,"

Dillard said. "I was more calm than my friends were. I just wanted to get my children."

Korinn, 10, came downstairs with 2-year-old Kylah in her arms.

They left the house. They couldn't see the fire, but smoke was coming out of the front door, which had been left open. Kristy's friend Zanatta called 9-1-1, and she began to panic when the operator asked if the car was in the garage and suggested to evacuate the neighbors.

"I paniced more than anyone, Kristy was calm, cool and collected," Zanatta said.

The girls started screaming about their two cats, so two of Dillard's friends attempted to rescue them from the burning building. Dillard admitted it was "dumb," but they did it because the kids were screaming. When they emerged from the house again, one of their 'do-rags had turned from white to black, and they were unable to rescue her pets.

"I told him to stop going in," Dillard said.

They tried to open the garage door, but the electrical circuits had already gone out. One of Dillard's friends yelled to get away; they could hear the sound of the glass bursting and tires blowing out. Dillard took her kids down the street to a neighbor's house. The neighbor turned on the lights, but it took some time before they opened the door. Dillard called her mother, Theresa Dillard-Cobb, who lives in Dale City. She showed up 10 minutes later, with Dillard's brother and stepfather, right behind the fire department.

"I found my daughter and three grandchildren sitting on the curb in shorts and no shoes," Dillard-Cobb, 53, said. "They were just sitting there watching the fire burn their house."

Dillard-Cobb took the kids into her car so they wouldn't have to watch. A short while later, she took them to her home and put them to bed.

Dillard watched from down the street as the firefighters tried to open the garage door.

When they finally pulled the garage door open, fire shot up the front of the house. One cat, stuck in the garage, survived. The other did not.

Dillard's mother took her grandkids into her car.

"I went back up the street in front of my house and watched it burn," Dillard said. "Besides the death of my father, this was the second most horrific thing to ever happen."

(She said her father, Gerald Dillard, was murdered in a drive-by shooting in 1996.)

Dillard didn't have any renter's insurance.

"I guess I didn't see the importance of it," Dillard said.

It's been about one month since the fire. Furniture, beds, toys and clothes were lost. Dillard has relocated with her daughters to a Dumfries townhouse after staying with her mother for a few weeks.

"She's been pretty tough, but she's had her moments where she's been pretty upset," Dillard-Cobb said. "She had three kids dependent on her so she did what she had to do, she found them a new home."

* * *

Dillard is in the process of getting renter's insurance for her new home. She's also replaced her 2005 PT Cruiser with a 2004 Nissan Xterra. In the fall her kids will start at new schools.

"I'm just happy I have my children," Dillard said. "I just think if I'd been asleep things could've went very differently."

Dillard will be tending bar Wednesday if people want to show support. Her friend, Ashley Zanatta, who was there the night of the fire, will also be working.

"Kristy's an amazing woman," Zanatta, 20, of Woodbridge, said. "She's a single mom with three kids. I hope everyone pulls together for her for this because she deserves it."

Staff writer Josh Eiserike can be reached at 703-878-8072 or .

WANT TO GO?

What's up: Twenty percent of sales May 7 go to help bartender Kristy Dillard, whose home was burned in a March 28 fire.

Where: Hard Times Cafe, 14389 Potomac Mills Road, Woodbridge

Call: 703-492-2950

Info: HardTimes.com