Ashford family’s home burns

ASHFORD—Peggy Chason said the sight of fire trucks parked on her street Tuesday morning immediately led her to fear for the lives of her daughter and granddaughter.

More than a dozen firefighters worked for several hours Tuesday to contain a house fire on Cosby Street, off U.S. 84 East in Ashford. Chason turned onto the street as she returned home from a doctor’s appointment for her husband to find smoke and flames had engulfed her daughter’s home.

Chason said it’s the sixth time since May that the home belonging to her daughter, Sandra Peters, has caught fire.

“I was scared she was in there,” Chason said. “She tried to put out the freezer fire Friday herself with her daddy. It was the motor in the freezer. They’ve just had a terrible summer.”

Peters and her husband, Jerry, live in the home with their children, and their dog and cat. Peters said no family members were in the home at the time of the fire, but the family dog and cat were missing. Both the poodle puppy, named Little Bit, and a cat they named Oliver, after it was found at an Olive Garden, were indoor pets.

“We’re hoping maybe they got out,” Chason said.

Ashford Police Chief Jim Stanley said no one suffered any serious injuries during the fire. Stanley said an ambulance from the Ashford Rescue Unit was on hand for firefighters who suffered from heat exhaustion. Firefighters responded from the Ashford Fire Department, Cottonwood Fire Department, Cowarts Fire Department, Pansey Fire Department and the Dothan Fire Department.

Stanley said investigators from the Alabama Fire Marshals Office were being called in to determine the cause of the fire.

Chason said Peters had just dropped her daughter, Hope, off at Ashford Elementary School and stopped by their church, Memphis Baptist, when she returned to find her home on fire.

“I was just coming home and I saw the fire trucks,” Peters said as she wiped tears from her eyes. “I was thinking ‘not again.’ We’d replaced everything (destroyed in past fires) with the help of the church.”

Chason, who lives in a trailer behind her daughter’s home, said the home is insured but a determination on coverage for the other fires still remains pending. She said her daughter and her family stayed in a motel for a month over the summer, and returned home just before the July 4 holiday.

“It’s completely gone this time. They’ve lost it this time,” Chason said. “We don’t know where they’ll stay tonight. My trailer’s not big enough for all of them.”