02-06-2025
Seminole fire damages two homes, one where owners of Maxine's on Shine live
After fires ravaged California earlier this year, someone jokingly asked Maxine Earhart what she'd grab if her house ever caught fire.
Sunday morning, as flames engulfed part of her Fern Park home, the restauranteur who owns Maxine's on Shine ran to save what she said she would: her mother's 1950s costume jewelry.
The fire, which started just after 11 a.m. Sunday, damaged about a third of Earhart's home, destroying her sewing studio, with decades of collected fabric, and years of restaurant memorabilia she and her husband stored at home.
It also damaged a neighbor's house before it was put out by the Seminole County Fire Department and the Maitland Fire Department. The neighbors whose home also burned declined a request for an interview.
Earhart and her husband, Kirt, opened their restaurant in 2012 near downtown Orlando. It is an eclectic neighborhood favorite and a Michelin-selected restaurant known for its Sunday brunches.
Officials think the house fire started in one of the sheds at the back of the properties but aren't sure which one, said Doreen Overstreet, a spokesperson for the Seminole department.
The fire department initially reported that the fire spread rapidly 'after an explosion' but officials no longer think that happened, Overstreet said. Instead of an explosion, they believe the fire may have started with a ruptured aerosol can, such as those that hold spray paint or hairspray, though the cause is still undetermined.
When the fire first started, Earhart was in bed, about to head into her sewing studio, when she heard a loud banging at the door and a man yelling.
'I go, 'Who are you?' Because I'm thinking, I'm not opening the door to some strange guy bashing on my door,' she said. 'And he goes, 'Your house is on fire,' and I'm in the house so I go, 'No, it's not because I see no smoke. I see nothing.''
With her fire extinguisher in hand, she ran to her kitchen but saw no flames, so she ran out to her front yard and saw what looked like 10-foot-high flames and billows of black smoke. She realized the fire extinguisher wasn't going to cut it.
Earhart calculated she had one minute to get out of her house and ran to get her mother's jewelry — one of the only things she said can't rebuy if lost.
As she was pulling out the dresser drawer that contained the jewelry, a man came in — she doesn't know who he is — and said, 'We're taking the whole thing, get your dog, let's go.'
While he lifted the dresser, the man who'd first alerted her to the fire came in with his wife, grabbed her still-packed luggage from a recent trip and ran out, leaving her with both hands free to grab more of her personal items.
Barefoot and still dressed in her bathrobe, she said she grabbed two dresses and one of the 50-plus hats she owns and ran back out the door.
Now, despite what was lost, Earhart said she is 'going for lemonade' and trying to make the best of the situation. She is thankful that no one was hurt and that she has remnants of a home — including her hats and closet.
'I thought we were gonna lose everything,' she said.
Earhart and her husband, who was at the restaurant when the fire broke out, will have to live somewhere else for at least a month, she said, but they feel well supported by the community.
In the day since the fire, customers have bought gift certificates from her restaurant, friends have planned fundraisers and neighbors have offered her insurance advice and consolation.
'I still have a shelter, I have a restaurant that gives me food, I have friends, family and I have my closet. So I'm feeling like I'm feeling lucky,' she said.
