BUTLER COUNTY, Ala. (WSFA/Gray News) – A father and daughter were killed in a house fire over the weekend in Alabama.
According to Georgiana Police Chief Jeremy Peagler, Tanya Walton, 28, and her father, Jimmy Walton, 72, died in an early Sunday morning fire.
Peagler said a 911 call came in around 3:20 a.m. for a report of a house fire in the 1100 block of South Palmer Avenue.
Firefighters said a frantic resident told them when they arrived that her husband and daughter were inside the home.
Sadly, they did not make it out alive.
Loved ones shared that the father and daughter were initially able to escape the fire, but Tanya Walton went back in to rescue her two dogs and Jimmy Walton followed to help.
“Unfortunately, they were unable to escape out of the house in time before it collapsed,” family member Malasia Clark shared through a GoFundMe.
The family house and a vehicle were destroyed in the fire.
Family members said that a space heater was to blame for the blaze, but the official cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Alabama State Fire Marshal’s Office.
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