An 11-year-old girl in Georgia died in a house fire while attempting to save her dog, according to her family and FOX 5 Atlanta. On Sidney Drive in Spalding County, a house outside the city limits of Gryphon caught fire on Saturday night. The house was destroyed, firemen reported to FOX 5.
The girl was recognised as Katelynn Simonds by the victim’s uncle.
“Always had that smile on her face,” Simonds’ uncle Charles Beecher told the television station. “That’s what I’m going to miss.”
According to Beecher, the young person attempted to be a hero and died about 5:30 p.m. “She was worried about her dog upstairs, and she ran upstairs,” he said. “Katelynn is an animal lover, much like us. After going upstairs, she picked up the puppy. “Little man” was his name.
Neither Katelynn nor the canine survived. Speaking about the loss, Beecher was noted to have a hurt tone in his voice. He stated that the family now has memories left. “I helped take care of them and always looked after them while [her mother] worked,” Beecher recalled.
The head of operations for the Spalding County Fire Department told FOX 5 that although firefighters attempted to save the girl, the house was destroyed by flames by the time they got there. Counselling services were made available to the responding firefighters to aid in their grieving.
Everybody enters with that mindset. “We will exert every effort, to the best of our abilities, to try to make a difference,” Mike Byrd, Chief of Operations for the Spalding County Fire Department, told FOX 5. “And these stories [are] just very tragic for us.”
According to FOX 5, two other people who were in the house when the fire started and Katelynn’s brother both managed to escape.
WSB-TV reported that Katelynn attended Cowan Road Middle School. She lived with her mother, brother, and stepdad and cheered for the Spalding and Pike County recreation departments, according to family members who spoke to the local TV station. According to WSB, a firefighter damaged his ankle while removing Katelynn from the residence.
In honour of Katelynn, the grieving community has placed a tiny memorial outside the house.
It was concluded by investigators that the fire was unintentional. According to a spokeswoman for the Spalding County Fire Department, it began in the living room area of the first level of the house, Fox News Digital was informed.
