Claremore Family Loses Home In Early Morning Fire

A Claremore home is a total loss after a fire broke out early Tuesday morning. No one was home, but the family says they shudder to think what could have happened had they been there.

The McClains have had an emotional end to the year. Their oldest daughter Taylor has been in the hospital since mid-December. Taylor has spina bifida and is recovering from surgery.

Her mom Misty was with her in the hospital when the fire started. Little sister Macey was at the neighbor's, and dad Brandon was working. Brandon, in a twist of irony, is a firefighter.

Misty McClain says it's luck or a blessing that her family of four was not home. Misty was by her daughter's side in the intensive care unit when she got the emergency call. At first, she thought something had happened to her husband.

Brandon McClain was at work and feared the emergency call he got was about his hospitalized daughter.

Neither expected this.

Youngest daughter Macey was next door and saw it all.

"I was thinking that my animal was inside. That my dogs wouldn't move because they were scared," Macey said.

The family, and to Macey's relief the three dogs, were safe.

"If we had been here, I don't know if I could have gotten them out. He would have been at the fire station. I would have had to make choices. I'm just glad I didn't have to," Misty said.

Firefighters from the rural and Claremore fire departments used a tanker truck to douse the flames. The heat destroyed the family's vehicles, melting the sides and blowing out the windows.

The family's handicapped van is also badly damaged. Just things the McClains say that can be replaced.

"Yeah there's memories lost, but you can make more. You can always buy more, but you can't buy another person. We're very lucky," Brandon said.

Fire investigators haven't said how the fire started.  Family and friends have started an account for the McClain's at the RCB Bank in Claremore.