Therrell Road family burned out

By Jessie Burchette

jburchette@salisburypost.comFire departments from three counties battled a house fire off Unity Church Road that left a family homeless Thursday night.

Firefighters from departments in Cabarrus and Iredell counties joined Atwell, Enochville and Kannapolis in responding to the 11:30 p.m. call on Therrell Road.

The sheltered deck on a double-wide modular home caught fire.

Frank Greene, Atwell's public information officer, said the fire, sheltered from the rain, went up the deck to the back wall of the house and spread into the eaves.

Douglas Sloop, his daughter Tiffany Leffew, and her two children, boys ages 5 years and 8 months, live in the home.

Leffew and her children were staying with a friend Thursday night.

Sloop heard the smoke alarm and got up to find smoke in the home.

Leffew said Friday her father thought the chimney had clogged and the smoke from the wood fire was coming back into the home.

When he went to open a window, he saw the back deck was on fire.

Sloop grabbed a cordless phone to call 911 and went outside, where he tried to slow the fire with a garden hose.

The Elizabeth Hanford Dole Chapter of the American Red Cross is providing the family with two nights in a hotel.

"We're trying to gather ourselves," Leffew said. "This leaves you like you're lost. We really don't know what we are going to do."

She is very thankful that her father heard the smoke alarm. "He takes medication, he's a deep sleeper. Thank God for the smoke alarm."

The home was extensively damaged, with all of the contents damaged or destroyed.

Anyone who would like to assist the Sloop-Leffew family may make donations of money to the local chapter of the American Red Cross.

Anyone who would like to donate household goods, clothes, furniture or other items may contact Leffew at 704-237-7869 or leave items her aunt's home at 7450 Therrell Road — next door to the burned house.

The South Iredell and Odell departments responded to the call with firefighters encountering rain, sleet and snow while on the scene.