House fire in Crete leaves family homeless

By: Jenn Schanz
jschanz@klkntv.com

Just hours after his home near Norman and 17th street was nearly swallowed in flames, Jessy Lopez is back to survey the damage, and search for anything that can be salvaged.

Crete fire officials say it happened just before eight Thursday night.

By the time they arrived, the fire had spread from a back bedroom to the attic, and most of the damage was already done.

“It was already venting out a couple of windows of that bedroom, so we knew we had a pretty heavy fire,” says Crete Fire Captain Tim McFarland.

Lopez and his wife were at a parent teacher conference at their son's school at the time of the fire.

For him, seeing his family so shaken was the hardest part.

“My wife, when we were at the hotel last night, she was shaking and crying,” he says.

Lopez says he had just made improvements to the inside of the home, and had many more planned.

Although fire officials say the home is a total loss, Lopez says things can be replaced.

“Material things, you know, they're gone and there's nothing we can do about it.”

According to Crete fire officials, the cause of the fire in still unknown.

For now, the Red Cross is providing support for the Lopez family.