DECATUR COUNTY, GA (WALB) -
Dena Chandler says she and her cat Tinker Bell were trying to go to sleep around 2 a.m. Friday.
"I just kept smelling smoke and I have a fire place in there so I was just thinking it was from there and I rolled over and the whole room, the walls, was blazed up and the ceiling. I could not see anything it was so smoky."
Chandler says she fractured her arm about a month ago, but was able to make it outside. That was when she realized Tinker Bell was still inside.
"So I said I gotta get him, so I felt my way back in, went in the bedroom and by the time I got him, there was pieces of ceiling dropping on the bed and it burnt his paws up bad and I had to take him to Dr. Bailey. He's in a lot of pain, but I'm glad that I saved him."
Investigators determined the fire started in the chimney.
"They thought it was faulty wiring, but it wasn't. The fire inspector went back and it was actually the chimney. The brick blowed it got so hot," said Chandler.
Chandler says with just a week until Christmas, she doesn't know how she'll be able to celebrate.
"I don't have anything. I mean it's Christmas time and I have a two year old boy Dillon and I don't have any presents. I don't have any money to buy none. But I did have 78 cents and they were ringing the bell at Salvation Army and I put that in there. So that was my last 78 cents."
And she says her living arrangements are still up in the air. "You know I'll stay with a friend this day and that day and a lot of them have one bedroom apartments and a lot of times the landlord won't let you stay with them. Like tonight, I do not know where I'm going to stay and I'm worried about it."
It took the six responding fire trucks about three hours to put out the fire.
If you would like to help Dena, you can call 229-254-4987.
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