“David Horning doesn’t bother shaking hands. His fists are cracked, raw and covered with a dirty sheen of ash that won’t wash away. He wears a gold-colored ring with an empty spot where some sort of gem once was. You can smell him coming in the door. Horning says he and his wife Sandra saved only a few articles of clothes from their Oak Harbor home that burned down two weeks ago. They washed the clothes over and over again, but the odor of smoke persists.David and Sandra Horning are private people. But after a lifetime of hard luck culminated in an accidental fire that left them homeless with just about nothing two weeks ago, they’re reaching out to the community, asking for help for the first time in their lives.It’s been rough, he said. Sandra was heartbroken. We had to throw everything away.After a story about the house fire appeared in the News-Times Jan. 20, not everyone was sympathetic to the couple. Some people wrote or called the newspaper about wanting to help. Other angry callers said they were outraged at the story because it brought sympathy to people who don’t deserve it. They tossed out words like meth house and criminal.It’s true that about six months ago the Island County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant at David and Sandra Horning’s home to bust a methamphetamine-making lab. Yet the Hornings were not arrested by police. They were thanked.Island County Detective Robert Clark said that he definitely did not ask Horning to allow a local bad guy to set up a meth kitchen in his home – as Horning claims he did – but he explains that Horning was cooperating with investigators, and his help led to an arrest.I see myself as a valuable component of the community, Horning said. He says he hates meth and the men who push it. He has two sisters who died from drug use. When he lived in California he said his girlfriend was raped and murdered by drug dealers.That’s not to say the Hornings haven’t had any trouble with authorities. Child Protective Service has taken all four of the couple’s children away from them and are moving to terminate their parental rights. Horning says one of the babies was taken away while still breast feeding.It’s an issue of child neglect and the couple’s inability – as perceived by CPS – to provide the children with their basic needs. Horning says his wife is a little slow and he has medical problems that keep him from providing his family with the kind of life he would like to. He was a carpenter and fell from a building four years ago. He’s had eight surgeries at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle as a result of the fall, and will never work as a carpenter again. The couple lives on his pension and Social Security.We’re still darn good parents, he said. The Hornings were in court this week to fight CPS for their children, but Horning admits it doesn’t look good. They’ve been living in a borrowed RV over the last week, which isn’t the best environment to raise children in. They don’t have a telephone or a even a permanent place to park the vehicle.Oak Harbor Fire Chief Mark Soptich said the house fire was started by an improperly-installed fireplace. Horning said he knew the fireplace had a habit of kicking out embers into the house and warned his wife about watching it. He’s glad that he didn’t have children in the house at the time, but he says he wouldn’t have allowed the hazard to exist if there were children there.Lisa Clark, the director of Opportunity Council in Oak Harbor, said the agency was able to provide the Hornings with blankets and some basic necessities, but the group’s housing for the homeless is filled and there’s a long waiting list.But Clark says anyone who wants to donate money or items to the Hornings can drop them off at the Opportunity Council at 1791 NE First Avenue. (Keep in mind that they have very limited space.)Of course, Horning says what they need most is a cheap place to live, which he’s found can be awfully difficult to find in Oak Harbor. “