Tiffany Weimer, left, and Tori Huster returned to scene of fire Monday. (Steven Goff / The Washington Post)

Around 9 p.m. Thursday, Tori Huster went downstairs to watch “Scandal.” Tiffany Weimer was in her upstairs bedroom, watching old episodes of “30 Rock” on her laptop and breaking in a new pair of soccer shoes.

In four days, they would report to Washington Spirit training camp at Maryland SoccerPlex ahead of the National Women’s Soccer League season. For a second year, Huster and Weimer were to live with the Eckerstrom family, which has hosted a half-dozen players since 2013.

On an otherwise ordinary night in Boyds, a bedroom community in Montgomery County, smoke detectors wailed on Aspen Dale Court. Huster saw the smoke. Weimer heard what she thought were doors slamming. It was, in fact, two explosions in the garage.

The players and three members of the host family, including the starting goalkeeper for Penn State’s NCAA championship team last season, scrambled for safety. Huster corralled the family’s dog and Foster, her 5-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever. Weimer raced out in cleats.

The massive fire caused a section of the second floor to collapse onto the garage, burying a Porsche. It also scorched four cars parked in the driveway; two are unrecognizable. The heat peeled the paint off a neighbor’s house.

A firefighter suffered non-life threatening injuries. The cause is under investigation. Kurt Eckerstrom, a tech consultant who has lived with his family at the home since 2003, estimated reconstruction will take nine to 12 months.

“If the timing had been any different,” Huster said, “we could’ve lost a life. We were very lucky.”

The first day of training camp is a time to reconnect with teammates, meet newcomers and stretch stubborn muscles. For the Spirit, it was a time to begin workouts but also to console veteran players who, for the time being, will live in a hotel and attempt to rebuild personal lives.

The start of practice, Huster said, “helps take your mind off it.”

The other players were just beginning to learn details.

“We had no idea how serious it was,” Joanna Lohman said. “We were shocked.”

Said Coach Jim Gabarra: “Tiff and Tori were pretty shaken up.”

After practice Monday morning, Weimer, 32, and Huster, 26, grabbed a quick lunch at the SoccerPlex pavilion before returning to the burned-out house, which sits on a cul-de-sac beyond the northern edge of the sprawling recreational complex.

Insurance representatives and a TV crew were waiting. Kurt Eckerstrom was there in tall plastic boots, sifting through the wreckage. He and his wife, Pam, raised three daughters: Emma, who competed in track and field at Colgate; Dana, a freshman defender at the University of Mary Washington; and Britt, who anchored Penn State’s national glory last fall.

The family has followed the ups and downs of women’s pro soccer for more than a decade and, when the Spirit put out the search three years ago for volunteers to put up players on modest salaries, the Eckerstroms did not hesitate.

“They are the best of the best people,” Weimer said. “If they had to move into a trailer, we would come with them.”

Said Kurt Eckerstrom: “I would happily claim Tori and Tiff as my own daughters.”

Britt Eckerstrom, a Northwest High School graduate, was the first goalkeeper selected in the NWSL draft in January, taken by the Western New York Flash in the third round. She had planned to drive north last Wednesday for the start of practice, but housing arrangements were incomplete. So she decided to remain in Boyds for a few extra days.

Almost all of her belongings were packed inside a Volkswagen GTI parked close to the garage. It was charred to the frame. She ended up flying to Buffalo on Saturday.

Although the fire did not spread to the bedrooms occupied by the Spirit players, a fallen ceiling and water damage ruined most of their belongings.

A day later, Huster was able to recover jewelry. Weimer, an aspiring writer who penned an online guest column for The Washington Post during the 2015 Women’s World Cup, dug out seven journals chronicling her life since college. Both hope to recover photos stored on their laptops. Their cars were destroyed.

Over the weekend, the team took them to Dick’s Sporting Goods for new clothes and shoes. SoccerPlex staff raised money for gift cards.

Anthony DiCicco, son of former U.S. women’s national team coach Tony DiCicco, launched a GoFundMe campaign. By late Monday afternoon, donations had surpassed $28,000.

Asked about the generosity of the local and national soccer community, Huster failed to hold back tears. “I get chills,” the Cincinnati native said.

“I didn’t even think people liked me that much,” said Weimer, who is from Connecticut.

She added: “You don’t realize how much you can help somebody until you need to be helped. It takes special people to act.”