A clear sky. Low 44F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..
A clear sky. Low 44F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
Firefighters battle the blaze at Kimball Park Trailer Court on the northwest end of Douglas Friday night as it consumes the home of Nikki and Howard Merriweather. The house was a complete loss, and they lost a family pet that had helped rescue two other dogs first before returning into the house presumably to look for Nikki.
Firefighters battle the blaze at Kimball Park Trailer Court on the northwest end of Douglas Friday night as it consumes the home of Nikki and Howard Merriweather. The house was a complete loss, and they lost a family pet that had helped rescue two other dogs first before returning into the house presumably to look for Nikki.
Community rallies for family after blaze destroys home
Howard and Nikki Merriweather have only been married a few weeks, and Howard had just recently moved into Nikki’s modular home near Northgate on the west side of Douglas when a fire Friday night destroyed nearly everything they owned.
The couple had left the house to visit Nikki’s oldest son in town and her daughter was at work when the fire broke out at about 8 p.m. They were on their way back home when a neighbor called to tell them their house in the Kimball Trailer Park was on fire.
Douglas Volunteer Fire Department Chief Rick Andrews said the official cause of the blaze is unknown because the fire raged so hot and moved so quickly through the double-wide.
“It was so bad that it was so hard to tell what started it,” he explained, and it took fire crews about 90 minutes to extinguish it because of difficulty getting out hot spots and getting to the fire in the ceiling. In total, the 15 firefighters, with four trucks, spent about six hours on the call, but they limited the damage to the modular, which he termed a total loss.
Nikki said they don’t know for sure what caused the fire but she suspects it was from a space heater she had been using after her furnace went out recently. While she technically doesn’t own the house, she explained, she had paid for it and was waiting for the title to be transferred to her name; nevertheless, she didn’t have insurance on it or the contents at the moment.
Andrews said no one was injured in the fire, but the family did lose a pet, which Nikki said was her 18-month-old German shepherd.
“My dogs were the only ones in the house at the time,” and firefighters told her the pet pushed her two other dogs out of the doggy door but then went back into the house, she said. She surmises the dog returned to wake her up because normally she would be in bed about that time in order to get up at 3 a.m. to get to work at Maverik.
“The hardest part was losing the puppy. She was only a 1.5 and had pushed the other two out of the doggy door and went back in and was usually time for me to go back in (to work at Maverik), and I assume she was looking for me.”
Her other two dogs, named Red and Blue (who are red and blue healers), had been companions to another one, named White, who had died earlier. The shepherd joined the family as a puppy.
Because they lost almost everything, friends posted on social media requests for help from the community. Nikki said the response has been simply amazing. Another friend planned to set up a donation fund at Converse County Bank this week, she was told.
So far, the community has donated clothes and other items, but she still needed some things such as pots and pans, cookware, linens, bedding for queen and king beds, towels, wash rags, etc. Anyone wishing to donate items can drop them off at Maverik or give them to any Maverik employee.
One lucky point in all this, she said, is that her new husband Howard hadn’t given up his apartment yet, so they had a place to move into. Plus, it gives the couple and their daughter a clean slate for their new life together.
“My brain has been in such a fog,” she admitted. “They (the community) have been amazing in helping us start over. The stores and community have been really helpful in giving and caring.”
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