- What Happened?
- Ryan was talking on his phone with his sister due to his mom being admitted to the ER. I (Jess) noticed a strange smell, so I began to investigate. First, I checked a space heater that we had going in the living room and a power strip that was next to me. Neither of those was it. But I noticed that when was close to the heat vent, the smell was stronger. So then I walked towards the furnace, which was located in the middle of the house. As I got to the hallway, I could see that there was a glow coming from the back bedroom. When I got into the back bedroom, I could see flames in the closet. I immediately went back to the living room and told Ryan that the closet was on fire! He said “what do you mean the closet is on fire?!” So he went back there as well. He asked where the fire extinguishers were, but we could not remember. Then he basically got me and the dogs outside, said to call 911, and then attempted to go back in to get our cats. While I was on the phone with EMS, Ryan attempted to go back inside 2-3 times but was not able to save our cats due to the extremely heavy smoke. That smoke filled the house so fast! It was like a blanket of concrete! Apparently, I got the dogs into the car, which I do not remember doing. It was subzero temperatures outside. I got out wearing pajama pants, socks, sandals, a t-shirt, and a hoodie. Ryan had pants and a coat, but no shoes or socks, so he was walking around barefoot in the freezing cold. Once the police chief got there and put us in his car to stay warm, all we could do is watch helplessly as our home went up in flames.