Family loses home to fire

Donations being accepted at Hillsboro Hardware

By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

A Hillsboro family of four was displaced from its home by a fire a Saturday evening that took firefighters from Hillsboro, Durham, and Marion three hours to extinguish and clear the scene.

Hillsboro Fire Chief Ben Steketee said the fire was deemed accidental and that it might have been started by smoking.

“When I got there, it was rocking,” Steketee said. “There were flames going out 12 feet vertical.”

Pam Rowson, who lives next door south, said she smelled smoke and saw flames shooting from beneath an eave. She and her son got out a garden hose and sprayed the flames before firefighters arrived.

Zac and Sarah Gutierrez and their two children are now sheltered in a hotel. Hillsboro residents are collecting goods for them. Hillsboro Hardware is a drop-off.

The family is now looking for a rental home, Steketee said.

“They were nice neighbors,” Rowson said.

The only treatment needed at the scene was for the family cat. Medics gave the cat oxygen to revive it, and it was taken to a veterinarian.

Steketee said the three departments’ response was “very well orchestrated and coordinated.”