Family Dog Dies in Avoca House Fire

By: Bill Steckis Email

Updated: Fri 5:23 AM, Oct 26, 2012

"We arrived on scene and within two to three minutes the flames were coming out of the floor ten to fifteen feet out." - Joe Clark, Avoca Firefighter

Fire crews from six surrounding fire departments responded to a house fire at 405 Nance Street in Avoca, Nebraska.

"The house is a total loss. There can't be anything salvageable," said Joe Clark, Avoca Firefighter. "We arrived on scene and within two to three minutes the flames were coming out of the floor ten to fifteen feet out."

Neighbors say the area has endured a lot of bad luck lately.

"We have had a lot of devastation this week. Accidents and kids and a local quarry. We had a fatality when a man was killed in a quarry accident yesterday. This is enough. We can't handle much more right now, " said Kathy Milburn, who lives across the street from the burned house.

Avoca firefighters will host a fundraiser for the family that lost their home.

"There was going to be a local harvest costume party here at the town hall in Avoca on Halloween night. We've decided that will become a fundraiser to raise money and anything we can put together to help the family out," said Josh Staack, Avoca Firefighter.

Neighbors say the family of four has two children, and that both parents were both working out of town when the fire ignited, one in Blair, the other in Kansas. They came home to find the fire had taken the life of one of their family dogs.

"I pulled it out from the kitchen, brought it outside and did everything I could do, pumped its stomach and even more than that so," said Clark

Money raised at the Halloween fundraiser will go to clothes for the two children

The cause of the fire is under investigation.