After a devastating fire destroyed their home on Perrysville Road in Danville in early November, claiming the lives of at least five of their cats, Melody and John Williams are reaching out to the community for help in locating a few others that may have escaped.
The fire, which took more than 12 hours to extinguish and involved 20 fire trucks from multiple fire protection districts, left the Williams family with nothing. However, their main concern now is finding their missing cats.
The fire started on the morning of Sunday, Nov. 4, when John Williams noticed smoke in the air. “I got up, took a shower, and was getting ready for church. I looked out the window and saw white. At first, I thought it was rain,” John said. “When I opened the door, I could smell smoke.”
He quickly ran around the house to the barn and saw that their camper was on fire. “The whole thing was on fire. We had high winds that morning, so the fire was moving toward the barn,” Williams explained. Fearing the fire would spread to the barn and then the house, he ran inside, shouting for everyone to evacuate.
“Everything’s gone,” said Melody, “But we all got out alive.” Melody, their adult son Jason, and family friend Quinn Hazelbaker, who had been staying with them, all managed to escape unharmed, though they did so in their pajamas, with Jason barefoot.
Hazelbaker, who rescues and rehomes stray cats, managed to grab as many cats as she could while fleeing the house. “We had a mama and three babies in a cage in the heated barn, so I yelled at John to go get the cats,” she said. Hazelbaker grabbed two kittens but lost another cat, Theon, as she tried to secure him. Fortunately, one more cat survived when a firefighter tossed him into a metal shed on the property, saving his life.
In the aftermath of the fire, the family stayed in a hotel provided by the Red Cross, having lost all their possessions except for the smoky, dirty clothes they were wearing. They were overwhelmed by the generosity of family, friends, and even strangers. A large donation drive organized by Melody’s colleagues at the Danville Public Library, where she works part-time, helped provide them with clothing and other necessities.
“We’re so grateful for the generosity of the church, our family, the community, and my co-workers at the library,” Melody said, tearfully. “It’s been a sacrificial kind of donation. My co-workers really dug deep.”
For now, the Williams family and Hazelbaker’s two surviving cats are staying in an extended-stay motel, provided by their insurance company, until at least January 1, 2025. However, they remain uncertain about what their future holds after that.
“There’s no plan. We’re going day by day,” Melody said. She and John, both 71 years old, have been married for 50 years, and John recently retired. “At a time when we should be enjoying retirement, we’re starting over,” she added. “But God is with us, and we’re able to carry on with the help of family, friends, and all that.”
The search for their missing cats remains their top priority. Over the weekend, the family found one of the missing cats, but Theon, a white cat with a light brown tail and spots; Lion, a yellow cat; and Angel, a black-and-white long-haired cat, are still unaccounted for.
“We really want our cats found,” Hazelbaker said. “That’s the most important thing to me.”
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