Fire destroys one home, damages another

A Saturday morning fire left a Cape Horn couple homeless and damaged another house before firemen could extinguish the flames.

"We lost everything," home owner Don Fullerton said Tuesday.

Fullerton had come home from work a little after 2 a.m. Saturday, he said. Sometime after 5 a.m., a noise like someone throwing rocks on the metal roof of their three-level house awoke him and his wife, Virginia.

The house was on fire and the heat was causing the metal roof to pop and buckle. They left in a hurry wearing only their pajamas.

"I grabbed my glasses and my wristwatch and that was all," Fullerton said.

Neighbors called the fire department at 5:36 a.m., and crews from District 4, Cathlamet, Skamokawa and Puget Island responded.

The fire completely destroyed the Fullerton home and burned a wall of the Randy Zacher family home.

The Fullertons are staying in a rental in Longview. Fullerton said people, stores and agencies have been wonderful to them.

"The Red Cross has been wonderful," he said. He received some money from them and went to JC Penney in Kelso for clothes. The manager said the store has a policy of aiding fire victims and only charged him the sales tax. He walked into the Department of Licensing in his pajamas and quickly received a new driver's license.

The house was insured, he said, and the insurance company has also been very helpful.

"We just have to move on," he said.