Help sought for Sedley family after devastating house fire

Published 7:00 am Friday, July 19, 2024

By Titus Mohler

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The Carr family that lived on Unity Road just outside of Sedley lost virtually everything it owns in a house fire on July 7, and community members are working to help the family in a time of significant need.

Those living in the home at 29322 Unity Road included Rose Carr, her mother, her sister and a friend of her sister’s. All of them made it out of the house without injury.

The family owned a variety of cats and dogs, totaling 16, including a couple of outdoor cats.

Rose Carr noted that only eight of the animals survived the fire.

WHAT HAPPENED

Carr took some time on Wednesday, July 10, to share her experience from Sunday night, July 7, at the house.

“I went outside to let my puppy out to go potty, and when I was coming back in, I told (my family) that I smelled something burning, but I thought the neighbors were having a bonfire or something,” she said. “So we were in the living room, and I think 10 minutes after I had said that, we heard a loud pop on the porch, and when we heard the pop all of a sudden, we could see through the curtains, and the whole porch just lit up.

“We have two or three gas cans on the porch,” she continued. “I’m thinking the pop was them exploding. We’re not sure what caused the fire at the moment.”

Carr said she and her family were thinking that the gas, which was at least in part used for a lawnmower, was why the fire spread so quickly.

“I ran to the door and grabbed my car keys from the front door, and I ran to my room,” Carr said. “I opened all my crates to let my dogs out.”

All four of them survived.

“(My family) ran to go get their dogs, and we ran out the back door and got everyone out, because by the time we got out of the house, the front door exploded in,” Carr said. “We left the back open to hopefully get the cats to run out, but none of them made it.”

Carr said she called for help at 9:58 p.m. and was on the phone with emergency personnel as she ran through the house and opened her crates.

“I called them again at 10:05 p.m. because I was freaking out because the fire was spreading so quickly,” she said. “By the time they got there, it was already in my room, my sister’s room, kitchen and living room. It was just spreading so quickly.”

She said that every room of the house was destroyed.

Sedley Volunteer Fire Department was the first agency to arrive on scene.

In a July 10 interview, SVFD Fire Chief Jeffrey Saunders said, “Upon arrival, we met extremely heavy and well-advanced fire conditions. The entire front of the house had evolved very quickly in fire. We put a quick initial knockdown on it. Both interior and exterior operations went into effect.

“We did get the fire knocked down on our initial attack, and then we did execute a primary search, which based on the comments of the call from dispatch, we knew that all occupants had made it out of the structure,” he continued. “Unfortunately, there were some animals that perished.”

Some of the animals were unaccounted for at the time as well.

Saunders described the Carr family’s house as “virtually a total loss.” 

“They lost everything, and in order for us to successfully get the fire completely out, we had to do an extensive overhaul operation, which involved tearing a lot of stuff out and actually getting to the heart of the fire, which was inside the insulation inside the walls and inside the ceiling and the attic,” he said.

He estimated that firefighters had the fire under control by around 12:30 a.m., and overhaul operations continued until about 2 a.m.

Second on the scene was Ivor Volunteer Fire Department, and Saunders said he requested help from Courtland Volunteer Fire Department and Hunterdale Volunteer Fire Department.

He noted that no firefighters or civilians were injured that night.

He said the cause of the fire was part of an ongoing investigation.

THE COMMUNITY RESPONSE

In the wake of the house fire, two of Carr’s coworkers — Nicole Hubert and Ryan Gibbs — have led the charge in fostering community support to help Carr and her family begin to rebuild their lives.

“(Nicole) started a GoFundMe for us to help us get things we need again, because we pretty much lost everything,” Carr said.

The web address for the GoFundMe campaign is www.gofundme.com/f/ty7cc9-help-roses-family-rebuild-after-fire/.

“Rose and I are coworkers at AK9I in Carrsville,” Hubert said. “She has apprenticed under me as a dog trainer for the last year and has become more than just a coworker. I would consider her a close friend.

“As word got around about what happened to her house, I had people message me privately (knowing we spent a lot of time together) asking either what they could do to help her or if a GoFundMe had been set up,” Hubert continued. “No one had set it up yet, so I decided to take initiative to set up one, thinking maybe it would be the easiest way to get the word out and allow strangers to be a part of her and her family’s healing process.”

As of Tuesday, July 16, there had been 17 donations to the GoFundMe campaign, raising $1,770 toward the listed $10,000 goal.

Gibbs has used her dog rescue platform on Facebook to help raise funds to pay for supplies needed to care for the family’s eight surviving animals and to also pay for the cremation of some of those that perished.

The July 8 Facebook post on Gibbs’ page included a link to the Southampton County Humane Society’s website.

Leslie Utley, board secretary for the SCHS, confirmed that the house fire resulted in the death of two dogs and six cats due to smoke inhalation.

Utley said the SCHS, which is a nonprofit organization, maintains a Community Disaster Relief Fund, which the humane society is directing to help cover some pet-related expenses for the Carr family. 

“This includes providing crates, collars and food for their surviving pets,” Utley stated on July 10. “We are also working with Wright Funeral Home in Franklin, Virginia, to cover part of the cost of pet cremation services for the family. As of today, we have received $695 in donations from community members to assist the Carr family.”

Utley noted that SCHS is committed to supporting the Southampton County community. 

“While our primary focus is on providing affordable veterinary care and adoption placement for animals, we also support pet owners and hunting dog owners experiencing hardship or disaster,” Utley said. “Supporting the Carr family during this tough time is central to our mission.”

Donations to the Community Disaster Relief Fund can be made on the SCHS website — www.socohumanesociety.org/.

“We ask donors to include a note in the comments to (explain that) their contribution is for the Carr family,” Utley said.

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