NEW ORLEANS —
Six homes were damaged in an early morning fire in New Orleans East Monday. Everyone was able to get out unharmed, except for two dogs who did not survive.
"We're just watching everything we got just burn to the ground before our eyes," Denisha Hale said while staring at the home she grew up in on Shorewood Boulevard. "This was like the neighborhood house."
She woke up around 3 a.m. to her mother, Dionne Hale, panicking and trying to get everyone out.
"When I looked out the window -- flames. So my first thing was to run where my daughter was and my granddaughter to get everyone out the house safely," Dionne Hale said. "I didn't get my dog out in time enough, but you know God is good and like I say, I lost everything."
Hale is thankful she was able to save herself and her four family members who were inside, but she couldn't save her dog, Precious.
The New Orleans Fire Department responded just after 3 a.m., finding a large home under construction completely involved in flames. It's now in ashes. NOFD said strong winds pushed the flames, damaging a total of six homes. Two of those homes were occupied including the Hale's home and 80-year-old Eugene Riddle's home.
"Everything I own is in that house," Riddle said.
He was inside asleep when the fire spread to his home.
"I heard a boom," he recalled.
Riddle lived alone with his dog.
"I tried to get my dog out the house, but he wouldn't come out so I told the firemen get my dog out the house, but they couldn't save him," Riddle said.
His companion's name was Baby.
"I had him for six years. He came to me when my wife died six years ago," Riddle said.
He's now left with only the clothes on his back. His daughter picked him up and is helping him figure out where to turn next.
"People take life for granted because you don't know what will happen tomorrow," Riddle said in tears. "I'm miserable right now, but I'll be alright because I got God. When you got God on your corner, you'll be alright and I got God on my side.
Both the Hale family and Riddle are left with nothing as the fire destroyed both of their homes.
"If anybody could help us in any kind of way, I really appreciate it," Dionne Hale said in tears.
Help has been showing up.
"We in this together," said Ed Prados who drove in from Bay St. Louis to donate clothes after seeing the fire on WWL-TV Eyewitness Morning News. "I saw y'all on the news this morning and I had to come give. My wife had a bunch of clothes. We give them to Goodwill usually and I said they could use them a lot better."
Eugene Riddle's daughter, Lucrece Phillips, said his immediate needs are shelter, since she is still living in a hotel since Hurricane Ida. She is also asking for help to gut his home and remove his dog's body from the yard.
"It would surely ease some of the pain," Phillips said.
To help Riddle, donate to a GoFundMe set up by his family here.
The Hale family is also collecting donations through GoFundMe.
As of now it is still unclear what caused the fire, but NOFD said it is being investigated.
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