Billings, Montana – A house in Billings that caught fire early on Monday is now unusable.
Although every person in the house was able to escape without injury, the fire claimed the lives of several dogs.
When he hears sirens and sees emergency cars zooming past his Boulder Avenue house, Ed Guerrero always pays attention.
“I always think that something’s happened to my mom,” Ed said.
Living close down the street is Soledad Guerrero, his dementia-stricken mother.
His worst nightmare came true on Monday.
“And then I look out the window and see smoke coming up over here, so I thought it was this house on fire, but it was my mom’s,” Ed recalled.
Ed claims that although his mother managed to escape with the aid of his sister and another individual, his boyhood house was destroyed.
“The incredible damage it did to my mom’s house, it’s horrible,” Ed said.
Despite everyone surviving, the fire did take the lives of eight people the family held dear.
“I guess seven cats and her dog got killed,” Ed said.
Although the cause of the fire is still unknown, the woman who had lived there for more than 50 years suffered greatly as a result.
Now that their mother is in need of some critical decisions, the family is left to make them.
She is a woman who must now deal with not just the difficulties brought on by dementia but also the consequences of losing her home in a fire.
