An early Tueseday morning fire destroyed a home in Lockwood off of Johnson Lane, claiming the lives of four pets.
See the impact of the fire:
"We went in and grabbed a two-liter of pop and filled my pop cup for me and bought her a pack of cigarettes. I was in and out of there faster than I've ever been in and out of that store," said homeowner Valerie Ellis.
Ellis says it wasn't even a 10-minute trip to Town Pump in Lockwood before she came home to a devastating fire.
"The whole place was... I don't even know what happened. I've never seen nothing like it," Ellis said.
"This morning, we got called to a structure fire a little after 5 am. We got there, and the house was heavily involved in flames," said Lockwood Fire/Rescue Battalion Chief Lindsay Lambert.
Ellis said she didn't have insurance and lost everything.
"All of my furniture, my business. I had my business out of that house, my eBay business. All of my photos, everything my parents left me."
Ellis says she knew her pets were inside. She went in to rescue them, causing her to be hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
"Fifteen breathing treatments in a row," Ellis said.
One cat injured in the blaze was taken to a vet, though two dogs and two cats died.
While Lockwood and other nearby departments responded quickly, they say slush and ice posed a challenge.
"It was a very long private driveway, and there was a sheet of ice with fresh snow on it. It made it very difficult for us to get our apparatus down there," said Lambert.
While the cause of the fire remains under investigation, Ellis says she is still processing what happened.
"I keep thinking I'm going to wake up, and it's going to be a dream," said Ellis.
