Houston County family loses home, 8 pets in fire

Lorey Heath sat on the ground across the dirt road from the charred remains of her home.

She grieved over the loss of the collectibles and other memorabilia in the home she shared with her husband, Leslie, near the intersection of South Jerusalem Road and Grimsely Road near Chattahoochee State Park in Gordon. She grieved over the thought of starting over, of trying to figure out how to replace a home with no insurance.

But what made her almost inconsolable was the loss of her seven cats, and a small chihuahua.

“All that other stuff is just things. They can be replaced,” she said, as volunteer firefighters picked through what was left of the mobile home.

But not the pets. They loved pets so much that they built a small shelter near their mobile home to care for them until they could be placed in a home. Those pets appeared to escape the fire.

Authorities received the fire call after 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. By the time volunteer fire departments from Lucy, Gordon, Cottonwood and Malone arrived on the scene, the mobile home had practically burned to the ground. To make matters worse, the nearest hydrant was about 5 miles away off Hickory Grove Road in Cottonwood. The next closest was about 8-10 miles away in Gordon on U.S. Highway 84. Fire fighters fought the fire with the help of a nearby farmer who offered water he uses to irrigate his crops.

Lucy Volunteer Fire Department Chief J.R. Sessions said he was not immediately sure what caused the fire. He said he saw smoke rising above the tree line more than two miles away. By the time the first responders arrived, saving the structure was not an option. Firefighters began trying to keep the flames from spreading into the nearby woods.

The Heaths’ immediate plans were to stay with neighbors Wednesday night. Beyond that, Lorey Heath was unsure. She said Mr. Heath, a longtime worker at Twitchell in Dothan, was laid off last week.