Fire on 14th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska leaves
house uninhabitable
Lincoln Fire and Rescue responded to a fire at 1121
S. 14th Wednesday morning.
(1) More Photos
Rakenya Thompson thought about going back into her
burning house to save Tigger but thought better of it.
Then, chaos -- firefighters, police, sirens, chainsaws.
A few minutes later, as the 32-year-old stood in
single-digit temperatures wearing a tank-top, and everything swirled around
her, she looked down.
There was her cat.
Tigger, a 9- to 10-month-old orange striped cat somehow
made it out of the burning house.
Firefighters arrived at 1121 S. 14th St. just after 8:30
Wednesday morning and had the fire under control within 10 minutes, said
Lincoln Fire and Rescue Capt. Jeremy Gegg. No one was hurt, he said.
Investigators are trying to figure out how the fire started,
and Thompson said she doesn’t know.
She said a friend who was in the house came into the
room where she was sleeping about 8:30 and said he'd left something cooking on
the stove. But, she said, nothing was on the stove and she realized there was a
fire in a closet.
Thompson said she tried to put it out with some drywall
powder she’d used to do work on the bathroom, but that didn’t help. She thought
about dousing it with water, but had heard that didn’t work with fires that
big.
“It went out of control," she said. "The smoke
was overbearing.
“I knew I was gonna pass out if I stayed in the house.”
So she fled, and so did her roommate and the friend
who’d been hanging out.
Thompson ran down the street and screamed for help.
Zach Ubbelohde, a 25-year-old graphic designer who lives
next door, said that’s not unusual for the neighborhood and estimated Thompson
yelled for at least a minute before he peeked outside. He saw the smoke, he saw
her and then called 911.
Then, Ubbelohde welcomed his next-door neighbor inside
so she could talk with police and a fire investigator in the warmth of his
home. The temperature at the time of the fire was zero.
Thompson said she hopes the fire didn’t destroy pictures
of her 13-, 12-, 8- and 7-year-old boys.
“I can never replace pictures of my kids.”
The house is uninhabitable and Thompson said she'll
likely take advantage of help offered by the American Red Cross.