Devastating House Fire in North Fort Myers Leaves One Injured, Pets Lost
When I first read about the fire on Santa Cruz Street, I stopped for a moment. You don’t expect a quiet family home to turn into a scene of heartbreak in minutes. But that’s exactly what happened in North Fort Myers — a blaze that hospitalized one person and took the lives of more than a dozen animals the family had spent years rescuing and caring for.
Fire crews say two people were inside when the home went up in flames. One of them, the wife, was rushed to the hospital after suffering burns while trying to reach the animals trapped in thick black smoke. And inside that home were their cats, dogs, and birds — many of them rescues who had been given a second chance at life.
What stayed with me most was something Trenton Chockley, the homeowner, said. “My service dog was like my child.” He wasn’t trying to be dramatic. Anyone who’s ever loved an animal understands that sentence instantly…