Reed Sigmund had just stepped out of the shower on Jan. 24 when he heard his wife, Autumn Ness, yell, “Fire!”

In a panic, Sigmund rushed up the stairs of the couple’s Stillwater home to grab some clothes, but was only able to nab a pair of jeans before the thick, black smoke threatened to overcome him. He broke through a window in his son’s bedroom, climbed onto a low roof and jumped down to his back porch.

Two and a half weeks later, he recalled sitting in the back of a police car that day, wearing nothing but that pair of jeans.

“I remember watching our house burn,” he said. “I was barefoot, shirtless and bleeding. I was paralyzed, I had no idea what to do. Who do you call? Who do you talk to? What happens next? Somehow, every day since, I’ve met the (next person who can help). It’s little, baby steps forward.”

Sigmund and Ness, who are Children’s Theatre Company members and well-known actors in the Twin Cities theater community, were in remarkably good spirits during an interview Friday. They’re both doing well, as is their dog Kermit. The couple’s sons Sawyer and Sullivan were at school during the fire and are adjusting to their disrupted lives.

“We’re trying to give them the feeling they have some permanence in their lives, and getting them back to their routines,” Ness said. “Our oldest one is doing better, but the youngest doesn’t love change. We’re trying to help them work through it. We stay positive for them. We’re here, we’ve got our dog.”

After brief stints at an Airbnb and a hotel in Woodbury, the family is now settling into a Stillwater rental home where they will stay as their home is being rebuilt. Construction should be done by the holidays, possibly as early as Halloween.

“They’re going to knock all the walls down, unless it’s load-bearing,” Sigmund said. “The ceilings and floors all collapsed.”

“It’s heartbreaking,” Ness added. “It’s a beautiful, historical house. I have tremendous guilt about that, losing a house with so much history.”

‘Little miracles’

The fire broke out in the wall of the laundry room behind the dryer and destroyed nearly everything inside the house. They’ve been able to sort through the charred remains to find a few sentimental items — her grandparents’ cake topper, a clock — they’ll attempt to get restored.

“We’ve had some really weird luck,” Ness said. “We found Reed’s wedding ring — he had taken it off for ‘Hello, Dolly!’ We found a wedding photo CD in perfect shape. It’s been little miracles.”

After taking a few days off to recover, the couple went back to work. Sigmund is starring in Theater Latte Da’s “Hello, Dolly!,” which opened Feb. 4. Ness is currently getting ready for her next show, CTC’s “Corduroy,” which debuts on Valentine’s Day.

“That’s been something we can get back to,” Ness said. “It’s come as a relief. Doing tech is a known quantity in my life. It’s something I can control.”

Sigmund said it’s helped finding comforts in the familiar. “I go into work with such gorgeous spirits. The people in this community are just unnaturally empathetic and amazing and kind.”

The family has been overwhelmed by the support given from the theater community, family and friends. To wit, Sigmund’s niece started a GoFundMe with a $5,000 fundraising goal. On Friday, it stood at nearly $73,000.

They’ve also started rebuilding life things, starting with their wardrobe.

“The first couple of nights were bizarre,” Ness said. “I was wearing my mom’s bra and neighbor’s socks. The first couple of days, you put on what you find. Then people started bringing us stuff. Spare boots, spare coats, it’s been amazing. And, then, like, ‘Here’s a Lego set for the kids.’ People brought us food and other things I wasn’t thinking about, like a box of hangers and Tupperware. Everybody’s thinking of details you don’t have the brains to wrap around.”

Sigmund said the couple was given an envelope from their son’s school with $14.32 inside.

“A girl broke her piggy bank and offered every cent she had to us,” he said. “That kind of generosity is astounding. The amount of goodness in the world is overwhelming. It sounds like a Christmas movie, but it’s not a cliche. It’s happening to us.”