The nine members of the Hay family of Perry who lost their home at 1402 Evelyn St. in a devastating fire Thursday night are picking up the pieces of their lives Friday, and the Perry community is coming to their aid.
A gofundme page has been posted for people to donate toward the Hays’ support. The fundraising page reads:
“Adam and Mandy Hay fell victim to a house fire. The house was home to nine people, Ruby (100), Connie (67), Dex (47), Adam (42), Amanda (37), Justin (19), Austin (16), Kaylee (12) and Cayden (9). Along with losing their home, they lost all their two dogs and their bunnies in the fire, too. Austin, Kaylee and Cayden are all still in school. And they also act as caretakers for Ruby. This page is to help them get back on their feet. Any donation will help.”
Donations of clothing are welcome. The Hays wear the following sizes:
Adam: 34/32 jeans-large shirt-10.5 shoes
Mandy: 10-12 jeans-large shirt-9 shoes
Justin: 29-30/30 jeans-medium shirt-9 shoes
Austin: 32/34 jeans-large shirt-10.5-11 shoes
Kaylee: 4-5 adult jeans-medium shirt-9 shoes
Cayden: 9-10 jeans (boys)-medium shirt (kids)-6 shoes
Grandma Connie- xL top, size 16 women’s pants
Ruby- size medium top, small petite bottoms
The fire was reported shortly after 8 p.m. by Justin Hay. It “was believed to have started in the carport, and because of the strong gusting north wind the fire was able to spread very quickly,” Perry Volunteer Fire Department Chief Chris Hinds said Friday.
“Mother Nature did not cooperate with the firefighters,” Hinds said, “by varying weather conditions throughout the night, ranging from wind, rain, rain changing to freezing rain, sleet, pea-size hail and ending with a steady snowfall.”
According to Hinds, there were nine people living in the house “along with a reported 25 to 30 animals, and it is understood the oldest of the nine residents was a bed-ridden 100-year-old lady.”
Built in 1906, the house had walls of lathe and plaster, “so it was like trying to burn through a concrete wall or a slab of concrete,” Hinds said, “and the house had an extremely heavy fire load in it.”
It was “one solid-built house,” he said, “and it just did not want to die. Of course, the fire was very determined, and it wasn’t going to give up either. We had a hell of a time fighting that fire, and we were fighting the weather elements besides that.”
Between the rain, sleet, hail and snow and the sturdiness of the old house, the firefighters were forced to forgo their standard method of interior attack and instead give the blaze free reign.
“Under all the conditions and circumstances,” Hinds said, “we basically just backed off and instead of doing an offensive attack on the fire, we took a defensive position on it and protected the surrounding houses and let it run its course.”
The house was so well made that walls eventually had to be knocked down when the fire threatened neighboring structures.
“A concern that we had was the east wall of the house started bowing toward the house to the east,” Hinds said, “and if that wall would have gone, the houses were close enough that it would have hit that house, and we’d have had another house on fire. So we wound up getting (Perry Public Works Director) Jack Butler in there with the city’s backhoe to try to try to push that east wall in. Well, he couldn’t budge that east wall pushing it in, so we wound up putting him around on the west west side, and he started pulling the west wall out.”
Hinds said 26 Perry firefighters and six members of the Woodward Volunteer Fire Department fought the blaze. Two Woodward firefighters were taken by Dallas County EMS to the Dallas County Hospital for injuries sustained in the incident when they were struck by a falling tree limb.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, Hinds said.
