A young couple is out of a home after an overnight fire in Polk County.
The fire happened around 3:30 a.m. at a mobile home on Ridgemont Loop in Davenport.
It marked a busy morning for Polk County Fire Rescue as crews worked to get the fire under control.
“I took my dog outside, I noticed flames coming out the bottom of the house. After that, it was kind of a mad dash to get my wife and pets out,” said Tony Stebbins, the owner of the house.
Stebbins said he could only watch helplessly as firefighters worked to put things out.
He told the media he just moved from Detroit to live his Florida dream, paying cash for the house, but didn’t have insurance at the time of the fire. Stebbins said he was hoping to fix the roof before getting insurance.
“We just moved in a couple days ago,” he said.
According to Polk County Fire Rescue, the fire started around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. It was put out just before 5 a.m.
“We had one firefighter transported to an area hospital,” said Nathaniel Gale, PIO for the Polk Co. Sheriff’s Office.
Hours later, Stebbins decided to come back to his house filled with charred rubble. He found two of the only things to make it out of the fire; Urns filled with ashes.
“This is my mother-in-law,” he said, holding an urn in each hand. “She passed away in February. This is my dad. he passed away in 2021.”
The ashes, somehow, were the only two things from inside the home that persevered after a devastating fire.
The official cause of the fire is still under investigation.