Family evacuates in time; cats die

EMMONS — An Emmons man said he is grateful he and his family are alive after a fire badly damaged their home on Sunday.

Shane Goskeson said he and his wife, Shannon, and their five children evacuated their house, at 706 Knoll Road, after what he described as an explosion in the lower level Sunday evening.

Five cats — including three kittens from a new litter — died.

Goskeson said he, Shannon, one of their daughters and a friend were renovating the floor in the basement and were having a hard time getting the carpet glue off the floor. They had placed acetone on the floor to soften the glue and decided to let the it set in for a few minutes before they would try scraping it off.

Just a few minutes later, Goskeson said, everyone had gone upstairs, and the explosion happened. The fumes from the acetone were ignited by the pilot light in the basement, and flames began pouring out of the front lower windows of the house.

“If we had been down here a couple minutes later, we could have been up just like that,” he said.

The fire caused extensive damage on the basement level, and smoke damaged the remainder of the house. He was unsure whether the house would be deemed a total loss.

“I’m just glad nobody got hurt,” he said.

The family has insurance, and they were waiting to hear the report of an insurance adjuster when the Tribune was at the house on Monday.

The Emmons Fire Department doused the blaze.