By Michael Van Cassell
The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne)
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A firefighter casually walked out of a smoking Reed Avenue home Thursday and set a cage down on the front lawn as if it were a chest full of mementos.
A little 15-year-old green parrot named Snooks, hanging upside down inside, moved its head. The firefighter went back through the front door.
Muriah Bailey, who lives two doors down from 3129 Reed Ave., had just come home for lunch when she saw the smoke. She checked to see if the home’s owner, Carol Vroman, was inside before calling Cheyenne Fire and Rescue.
Vroman, the sole resident, who wasn’t home at the time of the blaze, said she was thankful Bailey had noticed the fire.
“She’s like a daughter to me,” Vroman said before the two embraced.
Cheyenne Fire and Rescue responded to the fire at 12:53 p.m. Thursday and had the flames out 12 minutes later, said Jeff Pallak, public information officer for the department.
Two of Vroman’s boxers ran frantically around the neighborhood. Bailey tracked down one of the dogs before firefighters had stopped working at the residence, and the other eventually came home, the department reported.
Vroman has lived in the home since 1993. She said it was moved to its present location in 1984 from where the Herschler Building stands, and that she believes the house is about 95 years old.
Pallak said the fire appears to have started on the back porch and spread into the residence. A portion of the home’s southern exterior had burned through.
Investigators estimated damage to the home to be about $20,000.
Lt. Jack Wininger, who was investigating the fire for the department, said the blaze’s cause was undetermined Thursday evening.
The department had ruled out electrical, mechanical and weather-related causes.
“We can’t even call it suspicious,” Wininger said.
By Thursday evening, representatives from Vroman’s insurance company had arrived, the home was being boarded up, and Snooks had been taken to a veterinarian, Wininger said.
In the immediate aftermath of the fire, Vroman wasn’t sure where she was going to sleep Thursday night, but said she has a daughter nearby in Wellington, Colo.
“I’ll find some place to stay,” Vroman said.
Copyright 2008, The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne)