Norwich ― Natasja Hoffman had a mom’s intuition that something was wrong as she made dinner in her home on Oct. 15. She looked down the hall and saw a bright light in her son Bentley’s first-floor bedroom.

His bed was ablaze.

She sent Bentley, 5, outside and ran upstairs to grab her two young daughters, Maddy, 11, and Rylee, 7, and was sure she had one in each hand as she slid down the banister to escape. The banister broke and they scrambled outside.

Their older sister, Cailin McConnell, 16, was not in the home as she lives with her father and stays with her mother on weekends.

“I ran out of the house and thought everybody got out,” Hoffman said Wednesday, afternoon. “I saw Maddy. I saw Bentley, and I did not see Rylee, and I just started screaming.”

She ran around the house, throwing logs through windows to try to get inside to get Rylee. Firefighters and police arrived and ran into the house. They found Rylee upstairs, carried her out and rushed her to the hospital, along with Hoffman. Rylee had a pulse at first, her mother said, but she quickly succumbed to smoke inhalation. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Hoffman’s husband, Andrew, Rylee’s stepfather, got a call at work at Electric Boat from a neighbor that his house was on fire. He raced home. Along the way he turned on an emergency scanner app on his phone to hear that there was a child trapped in the house.

When he arrived, he parked where he could and ran up the hill to see the ambulance racing away. He went to the neighbor’s house, where the school resource police officer had brought Bentley and Maddy.

Natasja and Andrew Hoffman spoke Wednesday afternoon about their experiences and their immense gratitude for the community support they have received.

They spoke in the Norwich school’s central office where the lower-level office area is lined with large bins of donated clothes, shoes, coats, hygiene products, food, blankets and sheets and household items for the family. Norwich Human Services has put up the family in a hotel, while Maddy is staying with her father in Norwich.

“The amount of support the community has poured in, I cannot personally thank them enough,” said Andrew Hoffman, who works as an inspector in the machine shop at Electric Boat in Groton. “… ‘What can we do to help? Do you need anything? Do you need food?’ From my brothers and sisters at Electric Boat to the United Way, to the American Red Cross who stepped in that night who helped put us go into a place for the night, the city of Norwich, the Board of Education, the fire department, the police department, the first responders. I can’t thank them enough.”

The family’s two dogs are being cared for at the Norwich animal shelter, and neighbors are feeding and checking on their outdoor cat. Andrew Hoffman said he is trying to find a temporary home for the dogs, a black Lab named Daisy, and Chihuahua named Duke.

The Hoffmans went to see their home at 83 Summit St. for the first time since the fire Wednesday morning to meet with insurance company representatives. Neighbors had asked if they could clean up the charred furniture and clothing left strewn on the front lawn. One neighbor told them the scene had disturbed neighborhood children.

Andrew has lived in the house his entire life. He shook his head and said they don’t know yet what they will do. Insurance officials think they can rebuild, but Natasja Hoffman is not sure if she wants to return to the house, even if it is rebuilt.

Maddy does not want to go back to the house, Andrew Hoffman said. Bentley keeps saying, “Let’s go home,” he said.

Keep Rylee’s memory alive

Natasja Hoffman, 37, who runs a home cleaning service, took deep breaths and sobbed dry tears as she spoke about her daughter Wednesday. She said she thinks she has “cried out” all her tears.

She scrolled through her phone looking for photos of Rylee’s bright, bubbly smiling face, colorful clothes and goofy antics. She was preparing a photo display for Wednesday evening’s fundraiser for the family, sponsored by the Holiday Inn and local restaurants.

On Friday, supporters of the family are also holding a candlelight vigil at 5 p.m. at the Rose City Senior Center at 8 Mahan Drive. Attendees are asked to honor Rylee by wearing pink or otherwise bright clothing, glitter and anything sparkly.

Rylee’s nickname was “Sparkly” from about age 3, when Rylee came out of her room dressed in colors and covered in glitter.

Her wake will be held Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Church & Allyn Funeral Services, 138 Sachem St. The funeral will be held at 8 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home, followed by a burial service at Maplewood Cemetery on Salem Turnpike. A reception, open to the public, will follow at noon at Holiday Inn, 10 Laura Blvd.

A ray of sunshine

“You could turn the lights off in this room and she’d come in and her glow, her smile, her laughter and her joy, everything about her would light this room up, easily,” Andrew Hoffman said about Rylee.

Rylee loved to swim and dress up in bright clothes.

“I will remember all the crazy antics me and her would do,” Natasja Hoffman said. “Even if it was the smallest, stupid bickering, singing, dancing.”

Rylee and Bentley looked like twins, their mother said. The two were inseparable.

After Rylee’s death, her older sister, Maddy, surprised Natasja Hoffman by telling her of a secret YouTube channel she and her sister had created to post videos of themselves dancing and singing in their backyard gazebo.

Norwich Acting Superintendent Susan Lessard, former Stanton School principal, said all the school’s teachers and staff knew Rylee.

“I honestly can’t think of a time when I saw her and she wasn’t smiling,” Lessard said.

She read a memorial speech for Rylee at Monday’s City Council meeting, recalling the girl’s first day of school, as she wore that bright smile as she held Maddy’s hand.

Rylee was a bit of a daredevil, which landed her in the Backus Hospital emergency department on occasion. Like when she fell off the monkey bars in June and broke her arm. Her mom said her face lit up when doctors offered her a waterproof cast that resembled plastic bubble wrap.

Weeks later, she burned her hand when she tried to melt gummy worm candies in the microwave, and the molten ooze dripped out of the plastic bag. She tried to catch it before it fell to the floor. Another trip to the ER.

She got to sleep in Bentley’s bed that night.

“They were like two peas in a pod,” Andrew Hoffman said.

Bentley’s autism and boundless energy caused him to act out at school at times. He would take off his shoes and clothes and run from the classroom. Rylee often came to help.

“She would say, ‘What’s up, dude?’” their father said, and helped Bentley to calm down.

To help Bentley adjust to school, the Hoffmans volunteered at Stanton, staying with him at lunch and easing him into recess. Then they worked in the cafeteria when Rylee’s class ate lunch, helping the staff to clean up. They got to know a lot of the Stanton students and staff.

The morning after the fire, Stanton School became a home for the family consumed by grief.

On Thursday, Stanton School will remember Rylee with her favorite lunch, chicken fingers, french fries and strawberries.

Outpouring of support continues

Dozens of people attended a fundraiser Wednesday evening at the Holiday Inn, where several local restaurants provided a buffet dinner. Several people stopped at the admission table, donated the $20 admission even though they could not stay for dinner.

Inside, the banquet room was lined with tables of donated raffle items. About 80 local businesses donated gift cards. Tim Allain, owner of Jerry’s Appliances in Norwich, donated a kitchen stove.

Other big items included an autographed basketball by UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma and four tickets to the 2025 Opening Day baseball game at Yankee Stadium. Holiday Inn Director of Sales Chris Eccles said he as a connection in the Yankees’ front office.

“It’s really touching how the community came together to help them get through this,” said Zuly Caquias, a friend of Natasja Hoffman and employee at La Stella’s Pizzeria, which supplied some of the food for the buffet.

c.bessette@theday.com