Family left homeless after Saturday attic fire

Posted 3/7/17

Cathy Morris, her boyfriend, Charles Adams and their 10-year-old daughter had gone out to eat that evening while the other four children were at friends’ houses.

While they were gone, the light fixture in their rented house shorted out and …

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Family left homeless after Saturday attic fire

Posted

A light fixture in a furnace closet is the likely culprit in a house fire on North Day Street that left a Powell family homeless Saturday evening.

Cathy Morris, her boyfriend, Charles Adams and their 10-year-old daughter had gone out to eat that evening while the other four children were at friends’ houses.

While they were gone, the light fixture in their rented house shorted out and caught the wiring above it on fire, firefighters told them later. From there, the fire went into the home’s attic. A neighbor noticed smoke coming from the roof just after 6 p.m. and called 911.

“I got a text from my best friend at 6:12 saying that there was a ton of emergency vehicles at my house,” Morris said.

She, Adams and their five children gathered outside the house, waiting for information as they watched for two hours as firefighters went in and out of the house with hoses and other equipment.

Thanks to the neighbor’s timely call for help, the family’s pets — three dogs, a cat and two hamsters — survived; Powell police officers helped get a couple of the dogs out of the house when they arrived on scene.

Super 8 Motel, where Morris works as head housekeeper, provided two rooms for the family for a few days free of charge.

Billy Greaham of Powell manages the North Day Street rental property. Greaham said he learned about the fire Saturday from a telephone message after he and his wife, Linda, returned from an evening out in Cody. Police and firefighters were still working at the scene when he arrived at the house.

“They said we needed to board up the windows that were broken, so Sunday morning, I thought I’d see how many windows that entailed,” he said Monday. “I went to check it out, and smoke was coming out of the attic vent place again.”

Greaham didn’t have his cell phone with him, so he jumped in the car and drove to the Powell police station, and the police dispatcher made a call to the Park County Dispatch Center in Cody, which called firefighters to the scene again.

“The second time, they got it out,” Greaham.

While the flames stayed in the attic and ceiling of the house, water and smoke damage to the rest of the house and the family’s belongings was extensive.

“Everything in our room, my 17-year-old son’s bedroom and the bathroom had the most damage,” Morris said. “There’s water damage in my daughter’s room. The two little girls’ room didn’t really get damaged; things were just thrown around, and the beds are all soaked and badly damaged. We won’t be able to use them anymore.”

“It’s a mess,” said Morris’ 17-year-old son, Corey.

Morris said she and Adams are still trying to work out a plan for what to do and where to go from here.

“We’re checking to see where we can move, and checking into storage so we can store whatever we can salvage until we can get a place,” she said.

“We’re just trying to take it one day at a time,” Adams added.

A representative of the Wyoming Red Cross contacted the family Sunday and plans to meet with Morris and Adams today (Tuesday) to provide assistance. A Super 8 staffer also set up a GoFundMe page for the family, accessible at www.gofundme.com/a4hbs-new-home-for-family.

“This is not something we saw coming, that’s for sure,” Morris said. “We’ll make it through. We don’t know how yet, but we will.”

Greaham said a preliminary meeting with an insurance adjuster indicated the house is salvageable, but will require considerable repair and renovation.

He said he is thankful no one was hurt.

“You can replace things, but you can’t replace people,” he said.

Greaham said he also really appreciates the neighbor’s alertness, as his quick summons for help prevented more extensive damage.

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