Photos by Deb Gau Rural Marshall resident Tom Sando talked about the damage a suspicious fire did to his family’s home.

MARSHALL — Tom and Julie Sando said their family’s home had been a quiet place. The house in rural Stanley Township, northeast of Marshall, stood along a gravel road that dead-ended just past the corner of 310th Street and 330th Avenue.

But the quiet was gone on Friday afternoon when the Sandos got phone calls at work from concerned neighbors.

“He said, ‘I think your house is on fire,'” Tom Sando said.

It was the kind of thing you don’t expect to happen to you, Julie Sando said. At first, after getting the news of the fire, she said, “I was still in disbelief.”

Rushing home, only to find it engulfed in flames, took the Sandos through emotions from fear and shock to anger. At first, Tom Sando said, he was wondering what could have sparked the fire accidentally. Then he learned the fire appeared to have been started by someone else.

“Your mind just goes loopy,” he said of the experience.

The fire at the Sandos’ home on Friday was being treated as suspicious, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department said. The blaze destroyed an attached garage and gutted the house. On Monday, daylight could be seen shining through the roof of the house and its broken doors and windows, behind a line of yellow fire scene tape. Tom, Julie and their son Jace Sando were trying to salvage what belongings they could.

“There are a lot of dreams gone,” Tom Sando said of the fire’s destruction.

A Marshall man, Tyson Hinckley, was charged Monday with arson, burglary and motor vehicle theft in connection with the fire. A criminal complaint in Lyon County District Court alleges law enforcement found Hinckley at the scene of the fire, and that he told officers he started it.

Tom and Julie Sando said they didn’t know Hinckley. Tom said he decided not to go to the hearing on Monday. Instead, he and his family sorted through clothing and other items from the house.

The Sando family — Tom, Julie, and their sons Jace and Dillan — had lived on their property for more than 20 years. The house that burned was only 15 years old, Tom Sando said.

Witnessing the fire was a stressful experience, Sando said. At first, it felt to him like it took a long time to put the fire out, he said.

“But it takes time to get the (fire) tankers here,” he said.

Besides firefighters from around Lyon County, the emergency response included community members. A neighbor even brought in a semi truck hauling water, Jace Sando said.

It was tough going through the fire, and there’s still a lot of things up in the air for the Sandos. Tom said at this point he isn’t certain how much will be covered by insurance. The family is staying in a hotel for now.

“We’ll be rebuilding, but I don’t think it’s going to be happening this summer,” Julie Sando said.

However, the Sandos said things could have been a lot worse. Emergency responders were able to save some important items like family pictures, and Julie’s wedding ring. Neighbors and Jace’s coworkers at tru Shrimp all reached out to them.

“Many people brought in water and food,” Jace Sando said.

Emergency responders, law enforcement and neighbors all stepped in to help this weekend, they said. The Sandos said they wanted to thank all the firefighters, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, area residents, and insurance agents Christian Becker and Paul Penske for their assistance.

“They were very down-to-earth,” even when he and his family were upset, Tom Sando said of responders. The Sandos said the insurance agents they worked with had also shown “outstanding” empathy.