A fire that broke out in the garage area of a home at 511 Nichols Road destroyed the house and claimed the lives of approximately 75 chickens and one cat, according to 37-year-old resident Mandy Meyer.

Meyer was in the home with her stepfather Tim Burkhalter — who is not the Floyd County sheriff of the same name — when the garage caught fire at about 3 p.m. Sunday, April 1.

Both of them escaped uninjured.

The cause of the fire is undetermined and is currently under investigation, according to Fire Marshal Dean Oswalt.

Meyer said she was working in a room above the garage when she heard Burk­halter scream her name, and she quickly ran down the stairs and out through the kitchen door in her bare feet.

“Smoke was already coming through the shut door,” she said.

Burkhalter had run to the garage door from the outside, as he knew Meyer was inside, but he was unable to open the door.

He said the windows soon shattered in the blaze.

Three engine companies from the Rome-Floyd County Fire Department worked to extinguish the blaze that spread in a manner of minutes across the house and destroyed a majority of the family’s possessions including credit cards, clothes, cash and furniture, according to Burkhalter.

“Everything was inside,” said Burkhalter. “Everything. Gone.”

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