ONTARIO, Oregon — A family of six in Ontario is picking up the pieces after an early morning fire spread from a neighboring construction site to their home.
Jessica Goodfellow and her fiancé Brendon were forced to evacuate their home with their four children when flames from a duplex under construction next door threatened their house.
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"If you look up here, you can see the crossbeam is completely... pretty much gone, except for in between the beams that meet in the center, and it's just all burnt crispy," lamented Jessica Goodfellow. "And if it's really quiet in here, you can still hear the crackling, and there's just crackling of the boards. It's insane."
The fire began at the wood-framed duplex construction site next door, which reportedly had no electrical work or fire mitigation measures in place.
Brendon happened to be walking into the house from the backyard when he spotted the blaze.
"All he saw was just flames sky high out there at that first building. And he rushed to the house to get us all out," she said.
As the family retreated, they could feel the intense heat causing their house walls to begin smoking.
"It was just blazing hot. It was almost like you were standing this close to like a fire or burner," added Goodfellow.
The fire quickly engulfed the duplex construction site, generating enough heat to melt nearby construction cones.
Ontario Fire Chief Clint Benson said the Oregon State Fire Marshals are investigating the fire as a potential criminal case, and it will be several weeks before they're able to release a report.
The family's four children, ages 6 to 15, are currently staying with relatives.
"They had three days left of school. We still sent them to school that Friday morning just because we wanted to get their mind off of it," explained Goodfellow. "Just get them out of the picture, out of mind, let them focus on something else so that they weren't focusing on or dwelling on what's going on at home."
Brendon's employer, the Red Apple Marketplace, is accepting cash donations in the store and has also set up a GoFundMe.
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