PUNCHEON – Last week proved to be exceptionally hard on one Magoffin family, with not one, but two big losses in just four days’ time.
On Sunday, July 11, Amanda Risner was in a two-vehicle collision on Guncreek, totaling her vehicle and suffering quite a few injuries, requiring 31 stitches in one knee and a brace on the other leg for a broken and/or badly sprung ankle.
Risner, along with her three teenage children, were staying with her mom for a couple of nights while she recovered, deciding Wednesday to go back home to Puncheon Creek.
As she stopped to talk to one of her neighbors on her way up Jake Risner Fork, another neighbor came out and told her she needed to get home because her house was on fire.
Sure enough, her home was fully engulfed when she arrived.
“I had three cats and three dogs in my house,” Risner told Mortimer Media Group. “I saved two of my cats and one of my dogs. I’m still missing one of my dogs. She was a service dog.”
Risner, with the help of some family members, had been remodeling a doublewide that had already been through one fire, so it couldn’t be insured, her sister told the Independent.
“I lost it all,” Risner said. “The kids lost everything. When I got in a car accident, my kids, two of them were at home any my friend went and got them. As bad and nervous as my middle one is, he walks out of the house with no shoes on and just grabs a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. He didn’t have no shoes. He didn’t have anything. It took it all.”
They believe the fire started in the back bedroom – the only room of the home with no electricity.
“The neighbor said it started in my little girl’s room,” Risner said. “I was in the process of working on the electric in that room and there wasn’t none, yet. We just had a big extension cord running in there that had a little light plugged in so she could have a light, but that was it. There was nothing else in her room to cause anything.”
Risner had recently purchased the trailer and was working on it, room by room, as she could, but told Mortimer Media Group she has lived on that property for most of the last 30+ years.
“So, I’m going back,” Risner said. “It’s home to me and it always been home and no one will ever run me off unless I have to.”
The cause of the fire is still unknown, with an arson investigator with Kentucky State Police still investigating the site.
A GoFundMe page has already been established to help the family rebuild their lives, titled “Help Amanda Rebuild Her Home.”
Risner, who has always been a champion for those with learning disabilities, like herself, is on a meager income from disability and social security, as well as child support on one of her three children.
Those wanting to help can call 606-331-9155, or Facebook message her sister, Malinda Miller Auxier. At last report, the family is still looking for two of the dogs, asking if anyone sees two small dogs around Jake Risner Fork to let them know.
GoFundMe link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mgtwhf-help-amanda-rebuild-her-home?member=12506647&sharetype=teams&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook