AKRON, Ohio — The Akron Fire Department continues to investigate a fire that caused extensive damage, if not total destruction, to a home on East Archwood Avenue. The fire broke out Saturday afternoon.
Dani and Cheda Heaton have lived in the home for the past 10 years.
“The uncertainty is the hardest part,” Dani says. “Going from having a home and everything you need to having nothing.”
The couple’s neighbor, Jim Haboush, said he was relaxing on his patio when he heard two explosions and saw a plume of smoke. He ran to the burning house to make sure no one was inside.
“I just want to go and help… I ran him over, and then the door was locked. (I) went around to the side and kept banging on the door, but no one came.”
The Heatons were at a baby shower when the fire broke out and when they checked their dog camera to make sure their pet was safe, they noticed something was wrong.
“I was like, ‘I can’t see that,'” Chheda said. “So I looked at my Ring camera and I saw the fire trucks outside the house, banging on the door.”
The couple rushed home, not knowing what state their house would be in. But they were even more worried about their pets, who they considered like children.
“We were like, ‘Where are my kids?'” Chheda said. “We had 10 animals in the house.”
The couple said they have five dogs and five cats.
Fire officials were able to rescue several animals, administer oxygen to them and transport them to a local veterinary hospital.
The Heatons said all of their dogs survived, as did one cat – three of the cats died and one is still missing.
The fire damaged the building and thwarted the Heatons’ plans to buy Dani’s childhood home.
“We were planning to buy the house from them[my parents],” Dani says, “and the whole time we were saying, ‘OK, we have x amount of time left until the land closes and this house is ours.'”
A verified GoFundMe account is raising funds to help the Heaton family and their pets, including replacing Chheda’s wheelchair and other medical equipment she relies on.
Chheda was unable to return to his home to retrieve his valuables because the wheelchair ramp was destroyed in the fire.
Now they are waiting to decide their next steps.
“It’s a waiting game, waiting for the insurance company to tell us what they’re going to do and wondering what’s going to happen until the house is livable or until something else gets completed,” Dani said.
We will get it done
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