GOSHEN, Ind. -- When a loud noise woke Michelle White Monday afternoon she thought someone was in her home. As she got out of bed and grabbed her cell phone and looked quickly toward the sound, she saw smoke rolling from her kitchen ceiling.
White, her husband L.J. and their three children, Morgan Fetters, Cole and Noah lost their home at 58066 Hemminger Drive to a quickly moving fire that had caused the smoke. The blaze broke through the home's roof and a northwest wind pushed the fire throughout the home's attic.
"I was asleep and I woke up because I thought someone was coming into the house. I saw smoke in the kitchen and I ran out the door," Michelle said as she stood barefoot in her neighbor's front yard, her shoes left behind in the rush to get out of the house. She said the home's smoke alarm began sounding as she reached the front door.
Michelle called 911 when she got outside but then decided to make a dash back into the home's basement for Ellie, a black Labrador retriever puppy. As of Monday afternoon, the fate of two cats that were in the home was unknown.
By the time Jefferson Township firefighters arrived, flames were through the roof and being driven by the brisk wind. Noxious black smoke from the fire filled the Hemminger Hills subdivision that sits on the north side of C.R. 20, east of C.R. 29.
Michelle used her cell phone to call her husband, L.J., who was out applying for a job. He called his neighbor and fellow Grace Community Church member, Chris Miller, and asked him to check on Michelle until he arrived, according to Miller.
Michelle was home taking a sick day. She is a nurse at Bristol Street Pediatrics in Elkhart and was fighting flu-like symptoms. Their children were at Northridge schools.
"That's all that matters to me is that she is OK," L.J. told friends and neighbors gathered near the burning home.
He said the couple has a mortgage on the house. He said Michelle's car, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and his grandfather's gun collection were stored in the home's garage.
"Oh well," he said when he considered the loss compared to the family being safe.
Copyright 2012 - Goshen News, Ind.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
