House on Devereaux damaged by fire
By John Joyce and Kenneth Fine
Published in News on March 6, 2013 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
A house fire did heavy damages to this house on Devereaux Street Tuesday night. The family manages to escaped from the blaze but several of their pets lost their lives. The fire is under investigation.
Time and time again they transformed flames into plumes of smoke -- the dozen or so firefighters battling a structure fire at 1004 Devereaux St. Tuesday evening.
But for the better part of a half-hour, each time it looked as though responders had contained it, the blaze fought back.
A local family escaped a structure fire Tuesday, but, in the process, suffered substantial losses -- personal items, at least one of their three dogs and their home.
The call came in just before 6:30, after a neighbor, Thomas Earl Hines, came out of his friend's house and saw smoke.
"My homeboy said, 'House on fire, house on fire,'" he said, adding that he immediately dialed 911 and, while on the phone, began to see flames emerge through the smoke.
"I said, 'Need you now. Need you now,'" Hines said.
By the time responders arrived, the interior of the residence was consumed.
The fire burned so hot that the exterior walls of the houses on either side began to melt.
Out of the crowd of onlookers, a family member who asked to only be identified as the brother-in-law of one of the residents, said that everyone was, "OK," but that the family was shaken up.
"The kids got out," he said. "We're all just coping with the loss of everything."
He expressed gratitude to the neighbor who called 911 and to the community for coming out to support them.
"It's good to know, with everything that has been going on in Goldsboro lately, that your neighbors are still looking out for each other," he said.
According to the report, the fire was not suspicious, but the cause was unable to be determined.
The property damage was initially estimated at $25,000. The Red Cross was called out to help the family.