A pre-Christmas Friday morning house fire on Big House Road left a young family with a baby on the way in need.
The home was a total loss. Firefighters found the residence fully engulfed on arrival. Units from the Sunset, Hacklebarney, Walkerville, Northside, Bearville and Otter Creek stations of the Pierce County Volunteer Fire Department responded to the battle.
No injuries were reported in the blaze. The cause of the fire is undetermined.
No one was at home at the time of the fire. The residents of the home, Brittany Tolbert and Cody Simmons and their daughter, Raelynn, had just left the home and once they got to town, received a call the home was on fire.
“The important thing is that we are all safe and sound,” said Simmons and Tolbert. “We just have to find a way to start over.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to assist the young family. Anyone wishing to assist the family can do so by donating at https://gofund.me/6c0adf2b.
Tolbert and Simmons are expecting a boy in June and had just held a gender reveal at their home last week.
Despite the emotional toll and the devastating loss of their home, the young couple says they have seen the Lord at work and are thankful for all the support they have received.
The family found their Bible sitting intact on the night stand in their bedroom. The room was otherwise turned to ash.
The couple was left Friday with just a small bag of belongings, but received lodging at a local hotel.
Family, friends and the community banded together to make sure Raelynn had Christmas gifts under the tree in the hotel lobby Sunday morning.
The couple also was reunited with their dogs, a German Shepherd named Bailey and a Labradoodle named Bendi. The dogs went missing after the fire, but were eventually reunited with the family.
