The home at 452 North 1600 Road was destroyed during a Monday morning fire.

A Kanwaka township couple are picking up the pieces after a fire destroyed their home about five miles west of Lawrence Monday.

Jesse and Kelly Smith awoke around 5:45 a.m. Monday to the smell of smoke coming from the basement of the home they were renting at 452 N. 1600 Road. Moments later, Kelly Smith said, the smoke detectors started sounding and the two had just minutes to evacuate.

“I have never seen anything like that before,” Kelly Smith said. “Everything is gone.”

Kelly Smith grabbed her wedding dress and her cat Morris and fled the home with her husband. Their kitten, Ting, died in the fire.

Morris got loose after the fire, and the family continues to hunt for him.

Everything else inside the home, including their wallets and phones, was destroyed. Looking back, Kelly Smith finds humor in the fact that she skipped her purse for her wedding dress.

“What was I thinking? By the time I thought to get my purse, my husband was telling me to get out of the house” Kelly Smith said. “I’m sure I’ll tell my children someday, ‘You have no idea what this dress means to me.'”

The house itself was ruled a total loss, said Bob Rombach, deputy chief of the Kanwaka volunteer fire department.

The fire was “fast moving,” Rombach said, and the house was fully engulfed when he arrived on the scene.

“They got out thanks to smoke detectors,” Rombach said. “They had about 60 seconds to evacuate after detection.”

The fire was under control by 9 a.m. and extinguished by noon Monday, Rombach said.

Coincidentally, Jesse Smith and the landlord who owned the house are both members of the Kanwaka volunteer fire department, Kelly Smith said.

“The fire department was very sad to see that hit so close to home,” Kelly Smith said. “We have had more support than I ever could imagine.”

She said that support is helping the couple get through the difficult time.

“We really are just trying to gather ourselves, take a deep breath and realize the most important things are safe,” Kelly Smith said.

The cause of the fire has not been determined; damage is estimated at about $180,000, Rombach said.

A donation fund has been created for the couple. Item donations can be dropped off with Jesse Smith’s sister, Briana Kems, at 4136 Doolittle Drive in Lawrence or money can be given via PayPal at http://waltshaus.blogspot.com/2014/12/smith-family-fund-help_29.html?m=1.