photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

The house at 2456 Ohio St. after the fire on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022.

Updated at 11:50 a.m. Monday

A fire Sunday morning in Lawrence displaced a family and killed two of their pets.

The house’s owners, Lisa and Alan Potter, told the Journal-World Monday morning that the family, which includes two kids, had lived at the home at 2456 Ohio St. for about eight years.

They said their son woke them up just before 6:30 a.m. Sunday after he heard some popping in the garage.

Alan went to see what the noise was, and when he opened the door from the house to the garage he was met with a wall of flames.

“I thought somebody was knocking on the door and I got up to check it out. I heard something in the garage and I went to open the door between the kitchen and the garage and it was just whoosh,” Alan said.

The family evacuated the house with their dog, and then Alan tried to go back inside for their cats, Marklar and Pretty Girl, but the smoke was too heavy, he said.

“Pretty girl. She was a wild one. … We adopted her and found Marklar,” who was 16, Lisa said.

The family had a Toyota Camry inside the garage with nearly 300,000 miles on it; that was also lost to the fire, Alan said.

Lisa said that the family is staying at a hotel in Lawrence. She is thankful for her neighbors, who came to help them when they evacuated.

“I’m so grateful for all of the help from everybody. All of our friends and family and neighbors and teachers. All of the school district and the teachers the kids have had all reached out,” Lisa said.

Fire crews responded around 6:30 a.m. Sunday to the report of a garage on fire, according to a news release from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Battalion Chief Rob Fleeup. When crews arrived in 2400 block of Ohio Street they found that the garage was engulfed in fire that was spreading to the rest of the home.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

A car that was in the garage of the house at 2456 Ohio St. was destroyed by fire.

Firefighters arrived at the scene within 4 minutes of the fire being reported, and 21 firefighters responded to the fire, Fleeup said.

The house was heavily damaged, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

A fundraiser to help the Potter family has been set up at GoFundMe.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

The home at 2456 Ohio St. after the fire on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022.