Nothing left but ruins
A TEARY Trish Ogden returned home yesterday hours after a fire engulfed the bush escape she shared with her partner and pets.
Ms Ogden lost five kittens, a pet snake and a lifetime of artwork and jewellery when fire destroyed her property at Kennedy south of Tully.
The teacher’s aide was at a school camp in Cairns, but her two sons and mother, who live close by, awoke to "an orange light and crackling" about 3am.
"It was fully ablaze … all we could see was flames," son Logan Patterson said as he and his family stared at the blackened remains.
Ms Ogden and partner Doug Patterson have lost just about everything.
Albums of photos and a painting Ms Ogden was completing for her friend’s engagement were also among the ashes, but the tears were flowing for her pet snake after seeing its blackened cage.
"We had five kittens too, only a couple of weeks old, and we haven’t seen them or three other big ones," she said.
Her shed-style home and possessions were not insured.
"It wasn’t lockable so it wasn’t (insured) — but it, and everything in it, was our world," she said.
A handful of clothes, the car and a swag is all that remains, while Mr Patterson has whatever he took to his job at Emerald.
Firefighters were still investigating the cause yesterday afternoon, but family members suspected an electrical fault.
Residents in the small town of Kennedy rallied around the fire victims, Kennedy Store’s Craig Wilson urging people to leave donations at the Bruce Highway shop.
"Everyone’s devastated for them," Mr Wilson said.
The Kennedy Valley auxiliary firefighter arrived to see a fully engulfed home and said fire officers from Tully to Cardwell could do little beyond extinguishing the blaze and ensuring it did not spread to nearby trees.
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Devastated: Trish Ogden is struggling to come to terms with her loss.
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