Complete House Loss Fire - Loveless

Hello all! My name is Shiloh Loveless, and I am raising funds for my family, specifically for myself, my husband Scott Loveless, mother-in-law Peggy Loveless, and brother-in-law Glenn Taylor. We tragically lost our house and possessions to a house fire. It was a total loss, we lost everything, including some of our beloved fur and feathered pets.

A quick rundown as to what happened:

On Sunday, March 27 in Sugar Grove, NC about 3:15 p.m. my mother-in-law woke up downstairs from a nap to hear a noise outside. She went outside through our side door, and noticed that the front of the house was on fire. She immediately called 911 and then her two sons, Scott Loveless and Glenn Taylor, who were out grocery shopping, to let them know the house was on fire. She ran around the side of the house, to the back porch, to try to get back inside the house to get me and our pets, but when opening the door, could not get in due to thick black smoke billowing out.

While this is happening, I was asleep on the second floor of our house. I was woken up by my mother-in-law's dog, Jax, in pitch black, thick black smoke with the back of my throat on fire. I could not see to escape, and I could not breathe. I tried and could not punch out our main bedroom windows to escape and became trapped. So, I hunkered down with Jax on the bedroom floor to accumulate some oxygen and try to regain some sort of thinking. Finally, I managed to move and locate our walk-in closet and open it. Although I tried to find Jax, call for him, and get him to come to me, I could not find him, and he would not come. The closet had not yet filled with smoke and I, unfortunately, had to make a gut-wrenching decision to shut the closet door and cover the bottom with clothes to block out the smoke. In the walk-in closet was a tiny window; I was able to open it, punch the screen out, crawl through it, and get out on the metal roof. Looking behind me, I saw the entire front half of the house was engulfed in flames. I looked over the edge and saw my mother-in-law trying to get back in the house on the back porch at the back door. I yelled at her from above; I had to get down quickly because the flames were approaching rapidly. She tried to bring over a ladder, but my mother-in-law is 75 years old and small, she stumbled with trying to get the ladder to me and fell between the house and porch steps. Luckily, she was okay, got back up, and tried to get the ladder to me again, but unfortunately, I told her the flames were too hot, that I was barefooted, that the metal roof was getting hot, and that I had to jump. I got to the edge and with a wing and prayer, I jumped off at 10, 12ft roof, and landed on our back porch. We ran further out in our backyard and away from the house. Watauga County Emergency Services and the Beaver Dam Fire district came quickly but unfortunately could not save anything or the house. I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance due to smoke inhalation and for jumping off a roof. EKG, x-rays, and blood work were performed. Luckily no broken bones just scraped and bruised badly. From my blood work, I was almost at a critical level with smoke inhalation, and if it wasn’t for Jax, I would have died.

Peggy and I are thankful to be alive, but we lost a lot. We lost Jax to the fire and is named a hero within our family for saving my life. My mother-in-law also lost her kitten Smokey, 10 new baby chicks, her dove Rose, and three Lionhead rabbits on top of her car (her car was close to the house, and was melted beyond repair) and lost family photos and family possessions handed down from generation to generation, My husband, who is a retired veteran from the Army branch of 10 years, lost his military uniform, his awards, medals, letters, and pictures of his two daughters to the fire. My brother-in-law Glenn lost everything he had in this world as well.

We thank those to have helped us, friends and family alike. We must give a big, huge thank you to the Red Cross who aided us immediately by providing us with emergency food, clothing, hygiene and toiletry supplies, and medication. Many have asked us what we needed, we are good on clothing, food, and hygiene and toiletry supplies, however, there is still quite a bit we need to have replaced. I am raising funds to be used for the following and anything else that can help us to start a home again:

-Furniture (living room, bathroom, and bedroom furniture such as beds, mattresses, dressers, bed sheets, kitchen table and chairs)

-Any home improvement tools (my husband lost all his tools)

-Kitchen essentials (pots, pans, dishes, silverware, small appliances such as coffee maker, microwave, crockpot, etc.)

-Gardening supplies (if anyone knows mother-in-law, Peggy, is a HUGE avid plant grower from flowers to fruit and vegetables. She actually owns a small side business called “Peg’s Flower Power” (https://www.facebook.com/pegsflowerpower/?ref=page_internal) in which she produces beautiful cut flowers along with potted plants and baskets. And does small landscaping renovations, flowers for weddings, and custom bouquets. Unfortunately, she lost all her seeds, bulbs, plants, and gardening tools.

Thank you so much for reading and we sincerely appreciate any donation you can give. And if you can’t, we still thank you for reading and your prayers, and we ask that you please just spread and share our story if you can. Thank you and God Bless.