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ROY -- A family escapes a fire, but now their home is destroyed.
The fire burned in a Roy home for several hours Tuesday night before someone in the house finally spotted the smoke and flames around 1:30 Wednesday morning.
Investigators say the fire started under the porch where the family kept their animals. A heat lamp was kept under their porch to keep the family's rooster and rabbit warm during the night. That lamp started some straw on fire, and then the fire slowly burned up into the house for the next four hours.
As this Roy family surveys the damage to the back of their home, firefighters say the mistake of placing a heat lamp under their porch to keep animals warm is one that many people make.
Chief John Ritchie of the Roy City Fire Department said, "People, probably as we speak, are saying, ‘I am dong that in my garage, I'm doing that underneath my deck as well.'"
The fire started Tuesday night around 9:00 p.m. when the lamp caught dry straw on fire. It burned in between the walls, and then up into the attic. It wasn't until 1:30 a.m. Wednesday that one of the teenage boys in the house started hearing the crackling.
"He immediately yelled for his mother and two other brothers to get out of the home. At the same time, the smoke alarms starting going off," Ritchie said.
Mary Pundt, the boy's grandmother, said, "He went upstairs and the kitchen was engulfed in flames, the house was full of smoke and he ran around and got everybody out."
The teen got everyone out of the house, including his brother, Kasey.
"I didn't even get anything, I just left. I just got out of the house," Kasey said.
The fire destroyed a majority of the house and most of the family's personal belongings. It spared, however, two of the family's treasured heirlooms, a cedar chest and bible.
"It was her grandma's bible," Pundt said of her daughter, the homeowner. "They said you wouldn't believe the shape that the bible is still in, so we're grateful."
The family says they're also grateful that everyone came away from the fire unharmed. Now they say they need to figure out what to do next.
Firefighters say they will likely rebuild the house, and when they do, they suggest finding an alternative for keeping their pets warm.
"It's an accident," Ritchie said. "This is obviously something you don't point fingers at, but if you ask me, I would discourage the use of heat lamps of any kind."
As for the two animals, they somehow survived this fire. They're now staying at a neighbor's house while the family gets back on their feet.
E-mail: spark@ksl.com
