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Family, dogs escape Holly Hill house fire

HOLLY HILL, Fla. — A Holly Hill house fire destroyed all of a family's belongings Friday morning.

By the time the family of four realized its home was on fire, flames had already taken over the attic.

Don Holden said he was reading the newspaper, looking for a job around 10 a.m. when he heard crackling sounds in the ceiling.

"Thick, black smoke was coming out of the bathroom, like someone was standing there with a flamethrower," said Holden.

The 1980s home soon became engulfed in flames. The family scrambled to gather each other and its two dogs.

The Holden's said the fire appears to have started behind a wall in the master bathroom and worked its way through the roof.

"It was a huge hole, and the fire was inside the wall," said Chris Holden. "It just started going up through the wall, and there was nothing I could do."

Even though the fire burned through the roof, firefighters say the fire could have been much worse. Firefighter said they pulled some dangerous items from the home, like a heater attached to a propane tank.

"I have nothing. Everything I have was in that house. It's, you know, I don't know what I'm going to do now," said Don Holden.

Holden suffered an injury to his eye when he slipped and fell while trying to get out of the house. But everyone and all the pets made it out of the house.