Fair Oaks Family Reels From House Fire

"I just went racing down the hallway, grabbing the children that I saw on the way and the dog I saw on the way and just threw everyone out front," said Nancy Arnott, owner of the destroyed 6736 Ellsworth Ct. home.

Arnott was in the back of the house getting ready to take her children to school when she heard a neighbor pounding on her door, yelling her home was on fire.

"I turned around, thinking one of the dogs was still in the house, and I went to run back down the hallway and I saw that smoke just rolling across the top of the ceiling," she said.

The house the Arnott family has called home for the last 17 years isn't likely salvageable. Through the half-charred remains of recovered household items and memories, Nancy remains stoic, still coming to terms with an unwelcome reality.

"I just knew that it was too late to do anything."

The Arnott family is safe, abeit distraught and in shock. Though through the disaster, Nancy still took time to ask about , the Sacramento Metro firefighter who was injured while attempting to extinguish the fire.

"He's doing OK," Arnott said. "He has a lot of aches and pains, but I wasn't sure what was causing the pain; if it was something broken or something else, we don't know at this point."

It's too early to tell what the next step for the Arnott family is.

"This is only a couple hours old," Arnott said. "I'm still in the 'what happened' stage."

For all our latest fire coverage, please see our Fire Watch topic page at Fairoaks-Carmichael.patch.com/topics/Fire-Watch.