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Dec. 10--NORMAN -- Jamie Cann considers herself lucky, even though she and her family lost everything in a fire Thursday night.
This was the second time they'd lost everything to fire this year.
"God's got a plan," Cann said. "We feel pretty fortunate right now."
The fire that destroyed the family's Moore residence could have taken their lives, she said.
Minutes made the difference.
Moore Deputy Fire Chief Gary Bird said the official cause of the fire that destroyed the house at 1308 Regency Blvd. still is under investigation. But, according to Cann, it started near the washer and dryer.
"I went to put the dogs out at 7:30, and there were sparks coming from behind the washer and dryer," Cann said.
The home is owned by Margie Sorrell, Cann's grandmother, who has health issues and needs oxygen.
There were oxygen bottles stored near the washer and dryer.
As Cann was getting her grandmother out of the house, she heard an explosion.
"If this had happened three minutes later, we probably wouldn't have gotten out of the house because when that oxygen bottle exploded, it shot through the house," Cann said.
Smoke was billowing out of the house and Cann realized she didn't know where her husband was. She went to look for him and he came out carrying one of the family's Chihuahuas.
Cann, her husband, their daughter and her grandmother were living in the residence, but Cann said her daughter was at work.
None of the family was injured, but firefighters found one of the dogs dead on the grandmother's bed. Two other dogs have not yet been found.
"Our son passed away in 2009 and it was his little puppy, so it was really sentimental to us," Cann said of the dog they know died.
In April, the family's mobile home was destroyed in the Lexington grass fires.
"The April wildfires we had burned down our house. That's when we moved in with my grandmother," Cann said. "She had been living with us and that's when we moved to Moore."
Sorrell had come to live with the family because of declining health, but none of them were home the day of the grass fires.
"My mother was in intensive care in the hospital and we were up there when we got the call about the Lexington fire," Cann said. "Red Cross calls us the banner clan. There were 37 homes destroyed. We made the front page of The Norman Transcript that day. They showed our home."
The family was fortunate that Sorrell's home was available, so they moved to Moore, never suspecting fire would strike a second time.
On Thursday in Moore, the family had just finished Christmas shopping. Those presents are gone now, as are the rest of the home's contents.
Still, Cann maintains that the family is lucky, not cursed.
"We came within a few houses of getting blown away in the May 3 (1999) tornado, and were gone when fire destroyed our home on April 9," she said.
The family lost their clothes and belongings, but most importantly, they lost their family photographs.
"There's a couple of cast iron skillets in there I've seen," Conn said. "That's about the only thing that's not burnt or melted."
Three Moore fire stations responded Thursday night, fighting the house blaze with two pumpers, one ladder truck and 15 firefighters, Bird said.
"When they arrived on the scene, there were flames out of the roof," Bird said.
Trucks were dispatched when the call came in at 7:41 p.m. The structure already was fully engulfed upon their arrival.
No firefighters were harmed while fighting the fire.
"I haven't put a dollar figure on that house yet, but that house is going to be a total loss," Bird said. "I'm suspecting it's going to be somewhere in the region of $120,000.
Volunteers from the Cleveland County Red Cross were on the scene.
"We were asked to respond to the fire," American Red Cross spokesman Rusty Surette said. "We did make contact with the family and were helping them with some of their immediate needs."
Firefighters were on scene for several hours. Bird said crews left the scene a little after midnight.
Joy Hampton 366-3539 [email protected]
