Carthage family has unlikely donor step up after home destroyed by fire

Watertown Daily Times (NY)

Aug. 28--CARTHAGE -- Immediately after the dog control officer's house caught fire, Carol Brown brought over a gift basket and started raising money for him and his family -- despite the fact, just a day before the fire, she had to put her dog down in a case overseen by the person she was helping.

About two weeks ago, Ms. Brown's female German Shepherd bit her neighbor. She said it was out of protection.

"I feel so bad about it," Ms. Brown said. "I'm a nurse, and I hate when anybody gets hurt."

As a result, Justin Hall entered the picture. He's the town of Wilna's dog control officer. He, his wife, April, and three of their children have lived together in Carthage for just over a year. Mr. Hall is a volunteer firefighter for the Deferiet department and has been in dog control for Wilna for more than two years.

Handling the case, Mr. Hall issued her a ticket and quarantined Ms. Brown's two other dogs until they were deemed non-dangerous. Lastly, a stipulation after the bite was Ms. Brown would have to put her German Shepherd down. So she said goodbye about a week later.

"It was very difficult," Ms. Brown said. "It affected Justin, too. But I know that's his job and he's trying to protect the community." A day after Ms. Brown put her dog down, Mr. Hall's life was, too, was shaken.

It was shortly before noon on Friday, Aug. 21. Mr. Hall was with his wife, kids and dogs, driving to pick up their grandchild. They did some geocache hunting on the way, which is a treasure hunting game where you use a GPS to hide and seek containers with other participants.

On the way to a container, Mr. Hall stopped at the town office to print documents he needed for work. He heard the whistling sound that means firefighters are being dispatched to a scene. His department hadn't been called specifically, so he didn't think too much of it.

He went inside the office to wait for the secretary to get off the phone so he could use her computer. When she hung up, she said he needed to get home now.

"I said 'Why?'" he said, "and she said 'I think your house is burning.'"

Dispatchers were sending first responders to 25267 Loop Road, which is Mr. Hall's address. Still, Mr. Hall didn't think they were going to his house. He prides himself on his vigilance when leaving the house, unplugging appliances and turning electronics off. He thought firefighters were actually going to the house next door, which has been abandoned for some time, but still has power running to it.

He dropped his family off at the fire station and began driving the department's water truck to the scene, still convinced he wasn't responding to his house.

"I pulled up to the scene and just had a breakdown," he said. "I started panicking and crying."

His heart rate and blood pressure elevated as smoke bellowed out the back side of his house -- the room where his step-daughter sleeps. He ended up hyperventilating in the back of an ambulance with EMTs surrounding him and a fire chaplain praying by his side.

"I lost it," he said. "I've been to fires, but of course not at my own house. It takes a lot out of you."

Mr. Hall did his best to tell firefighters parts of the house that could be risky -- where the fire could thrive, or where the gun cabinet is.

The fire torched his step-daughter's room; nothing was left. Investigators would later determine the cause of the fire was linked to an air conditioning unit or power cord. One investigator determined that a cord running to a TV or gaming system might have been pinched, which sparked, then lit a nearby clothes hamper on fire.

"Thankfully no one was home," he said. "My kids would have been sleeping there had it started in the middle of the night."

In the days after the fire, Mr. Hall beat himself up over it. As a firefighter, he has smoke detectors throughout his house, fire extinguishers and a stern attitude to make sure things are turned off when they leave. He has a fire-proof safe in his house, which did its job in protecting valuable documents inside, but things that can't be replaced were presumably lost: his dad's guitar, the last pair of clothes his brother wore before he died and his children's trophies, to name a few. The Red Cross put him and his family up in a hotel for a few days in Carthage before his insurance company began fronting the bill. A problem at the hotel led them to be uprooted again and forced to move to a place in Evans Mills.

The bright side is the people who were there to help. Ms. Brown gave them a gift card and dog treats, and she also set up a can drive in Mr. Hall's name at Griff's Bottle & Can Retrieval Center.

"I was blown away," he said of Ms. Brown, keeping their history in mind. "I couldn't believe it."

Stefano's Pizza donated food, so did Pizza Hut. St. Louis Trash Service offered six months of free removal. Fire departments in Deferiet, West Carthage and Natural Bridge have donation boxes at their stations where they've collected clothes for the family. GoFundMe accounts have been created. The Deferiet department is also holding a chicken barbecue at its hall at noon on Saturday, Sept. 5.

"At the beginning, I didn't want anybody to give us things," Mr. Hall said, "but now I'm so grateful. It's gotten us by."

Much of the support comes from Mr. Hall not being just a firefighter, but also a dog control officer, which is noteworthy since many of those interactions aren't pleasant.

"I try to be involved in the community, try to show people the dog control guy is not a bad guy," he said. "It feels really good that people actually appreciate the things I do."

People they don't even know have been donating, he said.

"I didn't realize people cared this much," he said, "and we're not natives to this area. It just feels good. I've sat and cried multiple nights."

But, what goes around comes around. The fire chief of Deferiet, Troy Babcock, said Mr. Hall has raised nearly $10,000 for the department by filling pools.

"He has been a great firefighter," Mr. Babcock said. "Anything I need help with, he's there."

Ms. Brown had a negative first encounter with Mr. Hall, but she knew it was his job. She knows what it's like to lose everything.

"Growing up," she said, "I went through four house fires. This just hit home really hard. He is a stranger, but I would do it for anybody."

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