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Family dog dies in weekend house fire

ST. CHARLES — The Clive Fire Department is supporting one of their own after a fire in Madison County destroyed a firefighter’s home. Gerrit Foreman, a fi...

ST. CHARLES — The Clive Fire Department is supporting one of their own after a fire in Madison County destroyed a firefighter’s home.

Gerrit Foreman, a firefighter for Clive and Windsor Heights, and his family lost their St. Charles home, along with a beloved pet, early Saturday morning.

“I got a call from [my wife] and she said the house was on fire,” Foreman said.

Foreman’s wife and kids made it out safely, but one of the family’s dogs didn’t.

“My daughter told me she remembers seeing him running around outside,” Foreman said. “All we can figure is that my wife stepped back inside and he went with her. And he never came back.”

Things could’ve been much worse for the family, if not for a crucial piece of safety equipment in the home: Smoke detectors.

“That’s the reason I’m not planning three funerals,” Foreman said. “The smoke detectors woke them up and got them out. And you never really realize how much it hits you until you realize it’s the reason you still have a family.”

A GoFundMe page has been set up by Clive Fire Chief Rick Roe to help the Foreman family has raised over $20,000.

“We were hoping to get may $2,000-$3,000 that would help them to go to some of their short-term needs and it just took off from there,” Chief Roe said.

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