AUBURN - A house fire on McMaster Street Saturday afternoon left one woman wondering where she and her family would be sleeping.
Gertrude Morgan, who lives at 4 McMaster St., left her house as soon as she saw the smoke. The fire started in her bedroom on the second floor, she said.
“I heard something crackling and I opened my bedroom door and black smoke just shot out,” Morgan said.
She started to go into her room but the smoke was so bad that she shut the door and called 911. Everyone in her family made it out of the house safely but Morgan thinks that her cats, Boots and Poppi, may have still been inside. The only thing Morgan took outside with her was the phone she used to dial 911.
As the fire grew, flames reached the house next door, at 2 McMaster St.
Billie Clark said she was walking down the street when she noticed the fire. Clark, of Auburn, went to 2 McMaster St. and knocked on the door to tell the people there to get out, she said.
“I don't know what started it,” Clark said. “Thank God everyone's out.”
Kevin Leonard, who lives at 2 McMaster St., Apt. 1, was watching TV when Clark knocked on his door and told him to get out, he said.
“As I was coming down the stairs, I could feel the heat from the fire,” Leonard said.
Dozens of people stood by and watched as firefighters tried to put out the blaze. Neighbors and friends came up to Morgan and her family asking if they were OK and if everyone made it out of the house.
Firefighters took turns going into Morgan's house while other firefighters used ladders to get on the roof of the house where Leonard lives, fighting two fires at the same time.
Fire Chief Mike Hammon said the call came in at 4:03 p.m. The fire started on the second floor of 4 McMaster St. and spread to the adjoining structure, Hammon said. As of late Saturday afternoon, he could not determine the cause of the fire. However, the fire department will be doing a full investigation, he said.
Although everyone managed to get out of both houses safely, neither Leonard nor Morgan had a place to go. American Red Cross workers told Leonard that they would put him in a motel for the night, he said. Morgan, however, was unsure about where her family would stay.
“I don't have any other family here,” she said. “I just have God. He'll think of a way.”
Staff writer Gitana Mirochnik can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or gitana.mirochnik@lee.net
“I heard something crackling and I opened my bedroom door and black smoke just shot out,” Morgan said.
She started to go into her room but the smoke was so bad that she shut the door and called 911. Everyone in her family made it out of the house safely but Morgan thinks that her cats, Boots and Poppi, may have still been inside. The only thing Morgan took outside with her was the phone she used to dial 911.
As the fire grew, flames reached the house next door, at 2 McMaster St.
Billie Clark said she was walking down the street when she noticed the fire. Clark, of Auburn, went to 2 McMaster St. and knocked on the door to tell the people there to get out, she said.
“I don't know what started it,” Clark said. “Thank God everyone's out.”
Kevin Leonard, who lives at 2 McMaster St., Apt. 1, was watching TV when Clark knocked on his door and told him to get out, he said.
“As I was coming down the stairs, I could feel the heat from the fire,” Leonard said.
Dozens of people stood by and watched as firefighters tried to put out the blaze. Neighbors and friends came up to Morgan and her family asking if they were OK and if everyone made it out of the house.
Firefighters took turns going into Morgan's house while other firefighters used ladders to get on the roof of the house where Leonard lives, fighting two fires at the same time.
Fire Chief Mike Hammon said the call came in at 4:03 p.m. The fire started on the second floor of 4 McMaster St. and spread to the adjoining structure, Hammon said. As of late Saturday afternoon, he could not determine the cause of the fire. However, the fire department will be doing a full investigation, he said.
Although everyone managed to get out of both houses safely, neither Leonard nor Morgan had a place to go. American Red Cross workers told Leonard that they would put him in a motel for the night, he said. Morgan, however, was unsure about where her family would stay.
“I don't have any other family here,” she said. “I just have God. He'll think of a way.”
Staff writer Gitana Mirochnik can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or gitana.mirochnik@lee.net
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