Fire takes a life, 12 dogs and leaves family homeless

ELIZABETHTOWN, NC (WWAY)– An Elizabethtown family is grieving the loss of a mother and now in need of a home following a house fire.

“She was my life,” Shari Ross said.

Ross is mourning the loss of her mother Patricia Clay and at the same time facing the idea of being homeless. Last Saturday morning around 2:30 Ross woke up to her brother yelling.

“I went out my room door and he was saying ‘water, water, water'”, Ross said. “I got buckets of water and we were trying. I was handing them to him and he was trying to put the fire out.”

Six people were in the house at the time. This was only moments until it would be in flames.

“The smoke and the fire were just so heavy,” Ross said. “You couldn’t see anything in there. You couldn’t see and you couldn’t breathe.”

All of them made it out, but one. It was Ross’s mother and Dale Clapp’s girlfriend.

“I heard somebody moaning and I realized somebody was still in there,” Clapp said. “Patricia. So, I went back in the house several attempts trying to get to her, but the smoke, the heat and the fire. It was just so hot.”

That’s not all. They also had 25 dogs. Twelve of them did not make it.

“We love them,” Ross said. “They’re just as much human to us.”

They need help finding the surviving dogs homes and one for themselves.

“Whats next?” Ross said. “Finding a place to stay, trying to rebuild our lives and get our lives back.”

The Red Cross has provided a motel for them this week. That runs out on Monday. All that’s left is a few photo albums. Ross says for now it’s what keeps her going.

“The memories of my mother, and of the dogs, and the fun times we had together,” Ross said.

The family says they are trying to find homes for the dogs. In the meantime, they need dog food, but any kind of donation will help. The red cross says you can donate at Redcross.org.

If you want to donate directly to the family, they have set up an account at First Citizen’s Bank under Dale Clapp’s name or Patricia Clay.
You can also call the family if you want to contact them about a donation or giving a dog a home. Dale Clay says he can be reached at 910-723-3892.