RITTMAN, Ohio — As Thanksgiving approaches, Kayla Shue and her family are counting their blessings. Thursday night, they lost everything, including their three dogs, after a fire at their home on Jasmin Court in Rittman.
“So nothing is really salvageable in our home," said Shue. "The fire created thick black smoke that permeated throughout the home. Everything is covered in it."
Shue, her husband, and her 6-year-old, 2-year-old, and infant sons escaped the house with just the shirts on their backs.
The couple's 6-year-old boy may have saved everyone. Shue says he came into their bedroom to alert them of a problem. “He said, 'Dad, my TV's off,'" said Shue.
"We thought it was a pocket breaker. So my husband gets out of bed. He goes downstairs, the pocket breaker back, and he notices the fire in the back bedroom of our house. He starts screaming, 'fire!'" Shue said.
There is a GoFundMepage for the family as they look to recoup some of what they lost in the fire.
“Anything really helps," said Shue. "Even if it's just a prayer, anything.” She said they need clothes for the children and baby items like a walker for the infant.
The couple did not have renters insurance, and her husband lost his job last week after an accident.
“His whole passenger side of his truck was gone by the end of the accident," said Shue. "We had lost our dog during that time; he was found about two days later, and then now he had passed away and perished in the fire.”
“These three pieces were what were on fire when they when they entered the room," said Rittman's Fire Chief Kyle McDonald. Chief McDonald told News 5 that a faulty dehumidifier is what started the fire.
As the temperature drops, the Chief said his department gets more calls.
Chief McDonald advises people to never leave space heaters or dehumidifiers alone and never use a power strip or extension cord for portable appliances.
"A lot of these appliances draw way too much power current, and it overheats the circuit. And that's the first thing to fail," said McDonald. "They will start to melt, then they will short circuit. They start to melt if they're on carpet, cardboard, or anything; that's what usually starts a fire.
McDonald also advises people to check the battery in their smoke detector. There was only one working smoke detector in the home when this fire started.
"It was on the first floor, and it didn't alert till they were actually evacuating the house," said McDonald.
