HAMLIN, W.Va. - More than 20 years ago, Helen Hervey built a one-room log cabin for herself in Lincoln County. Two weeks ago, she watched her home burn to the ground.

With family and friends by her side, and despite being confined to a wheelchair, she is starting again from scratch.

"2009 is the new 1987," she said.

Hervey, 49, settled in West Virginia in the early 1980s. Originally from Cleveland, she traveled the country on her motorcycle. The friends she made brought her to Lincoln County in the early 1980s, and inspired her to settle in the area.

"I wanted to live the simple life, or at least what I thought was simple," she said. "I was just flabbergasted that, here it was in the 1980s, and there were people living out in the woods, growing their own food [and living off the land]."

 She began looking for property, and in 1985, she purchased 50 acres outside Hamlin for $5,000.

"After I perused the country, West Virginia was the best place to settle," she said. "It's very hard to communicate to people just how beautiful [this state] is."

Hervey began building her home - at first, a one-room log cabin - a couple of years later, with a chainsaw given to her by her mother. She admits she "didn't have a clue" where to start.

"But you can't let that stop you," she said.

Hervey did her research and, with a little common sense, "I went around and began cutting down a bunch of pine trees."

She also relied on her neighbors, who came out to her property several times for an old-fashioned log-raising. Finally, the cabin was built, and Hervey spent several years there.

Then in 1993, she broke her back after falling from the balcony of her house. She spent about a year in Cleveland rehabilitating following the accident, and the fall left her in a wheelchair.

Instead of Hervey packing up and moving to a home more easily adapted to a wheelchair, her friends and family rallied around her and helped her fix her cabin to meet her needs.

Leaving her mountaintop home was never an option, Hervey said: "I am home."

That remains true even after the fire that swept through her cabin on March 19. She believes a piece of coal from the stove started the fire while she and a friend were outside in the garden.

She and her friend saw smoke coming from the house and rushed back, but the fire had already started to spread. They went into the house to get Hervey's cats and she called 911 and a neighbor from her cell phone.

With family and friends by her side, and despite being confined to a wheelchair, she is starting again from scratch.

"2009 is the new 1987," she said.

Hervey, 49, settled in West Virginia in the early 1980s. Originally from Cleveland, she traveled the country on her motorcycle. The friends she made brought her to Lincoln County in the early 1980s, and inspired her to settle in the area.

"I wanted to live the simple life, or at least what I thought was simple," she said. "I was just flabbergasted that, here it was in the 1980s, and there were people living out in the woods, growing their own food [and living off the land]."

 She began looking for property, and in 1985, she purchased 50 acres outside Hamlin for $5,000.

"After I perused the country, West Virginia was the best place to settle," she said. "It's very hard to communicate to people just how beautiful [this state] is."

Hervey began building her home - at first, a one-room log cabin - a couple of years later, with a chainsaw given to her by her mother. She admits she "didn't have a clue" where to start.

"But you can't let that stop you," she said.

Hervey did her research and, with a little common sense, "I went around and began cutting down a bunch of pine trees."

She also relied on her neighbors, who came out to her property several times for an old-fashioned log-raising. Finally, the cabin was built, and Hervey spent several years there.

Then in 1993, she broke her back after falling from the balcony of her house. She spent about a year in Cleveland rehabilitating following the accident, and the fall left her in a wheelchair.

Instead of Hervey packing up and moving to a home more easily adapted to a wheelchair, her friends and family rallied around her and helped her fix her cabin to meet her needs.

Leaving her mountaintop home was never an option, Hervey said: "I am home."

That remains true even after the fire that swept through her cabin on March 19. She believes a piece of coal from the stove started the fire while she and a friend were outside in the garden.

She and her friend saw smoke coming from the house and rushed back, but the fire had already started to spread. They went into the house to get Hervey's cats and she called 911 and a neighbor from her cell phone.

Hervey got out of her wheelchair and tried to slow the fire down with water from a pump under her sink, until the second floor began to cave in.

Her neighbors, who live about a mile away, raced to the house. They got there just in time to help Hervey back into her wheelchair and out of the house before the ceiling fell in.

She said that when they yelled for her to get out of the house, all she could think was, "Hell no, not my house."

Despite their efforts, Hervey's home was destroyed. "I was lucky to get out with my life," she said.

Not everything was lost, though. Construction had started on a nearby cabin for Hervey's sister-in-law before the fire, and part of that structure was saved.

Hervey's friends rallied around her once again. In the two weeks since the fire, they have nearly completed construction on the cabin, which sits just yards from the charred remains of her former home.

Hervey's mother, Gusti Krauss, and several other members of Hervey's family traveled down from the Cleveland area last week to help in any way they could.

Since the fire, a constant stream of friends and neighbors has stopped by the secluded property to drop off food and building supplies or lend a hand in the construction of the new cabin.

"This is what human beings are supposed to do," Krauss said. "You take care of each other."

"I'm blessed with a lot of friends," Hervey said. "There's your blood family and there's your chosen family. All these people are my brothers and sisters."

Hervey plans to move into the cabin meant for her sister-in-law as soon as she can. Then, she will set her sights on building a new home.

"In a lot of ways I'm unlucky," she said, "but, at the same time, I'm very lucky."

To see more pictures and monitor the progress of the cabin construction, visit www.helenfund.blogspot.com.

Reach Veronica Nett at veronican

@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5113.