Update, 9:43 p.m. Friday, June 4:
A friend has started an online fundraiser to help the residents of the Pleasant Street home, Janet FitzGerald and her family, recover from the fire.
“They lost everything,” A’sha Pruitt wrote on the fundraiser page. “Please find it in your heart to help out a friend.”
Within 10 hours, the fundraiser had already surpassed its goal of $3,000, but it was still accepting donations as of late Friday evening. Find the GoFundMe page here.
Original story, published at 12:41 p.m. Friday, June 4:
One adult and two children have been displaced after a fire early Friday in the 400 block of Pleasant Street, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical. The family dog did not survive.
Firefighters arrived at the home at 2:39 a.m. Friday to find the garage fully engulfed in fire, Tom Fagan, division chief of administration for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, said in a news release. The fire was extinguished by 3:09 a.m., with damages mostly contained to the home’s garage and attic areas, he said.
No one living in the home was injured. One firefighter was taken to the hospital with a minor injury, but has since been released, Fagan said.
LDCFM has been unable to verify whether the home had working smoke detectors — the home’s owner said they were installed, but they didn’t hear the alarms go off before waking up to a strange smell and discovering flames, according to the release.
No alarms were sounding when firefighters arrived on scene, Fagan said, which is a critical reminder for everyone to ensure their smoke detectors are working properly.
The cause and damages of the fire are still under investigation, according to LDCFM.
