LONSDALE -- Angel, a 15-year-old fox terrier, lived up to her name Friday, saving her owner from a fire that consumed his mobile home in rural east Garland County.
"She's special. I told her, 'Boy you must really be an angel.' She was abused and homeless, but she just jumped in my truck one day and she's been with me ever since," Eddie Makin said.
Makin said he was preparing to go to work around 9 a.m. when Angel scratched at the bedroom door, seeming to indicate that she wanted to go outside. Once he opened the door, though, he observed heavy smoke in the hallway of his home at 354 Rigsby Loop.
Realizing his home was on fire, Makin said he escaped through his trailer window with Angel tucked under his arm, landing a 9-foot jump barefooted onto the icy grass below. He said he managed to grab his wallet, keys and toss some clothing out of his home before making it out.
Lonsdale Fire Chief Eddie Tackett said the home was a total loss, both the structure and contents. Sixteen firemen, eight from Lonsdale and eight from Morning Star, had the fire under control in less than 15 minutes and remained on the scene for about 90 minutes after.
"The fire was due to the heating system. Everything went well and we worked together," Tackett said.
Makin said he was in the midst of remodeling his trailer in order to "fix it up nice" for his wife who is currently being treated for breast cancer in another city. He said the fire was caused by the pipes through the wall for the wood fire stove and joked about how his oldest son, Michael, had warned him to put in fire alarms.
"I was amazed by how fast everything happened. I had just put in a new lift, painted the outside and was putting in a wood-burning stove to keep the heat in," he said.
Makin and his two sons, Michael and Mark, moved from California over 24 years ago and have called Arkansas home ever since. A man good with his hands, Makin has worked in construction and window cleaning for over 30 years in both states.
"All I can do is thank the good Lord for giving me this home to provide for my boys and get them through school. It was a blessing," he said.
He reminisced on how the neighbors enjoyed his trailer home as their own, but regretted not being able to salvage baby photos from the fire. Makin said he still planned to go to work at his window cleaning job Friday after grabbing a cup of coffee only hours after losing his home.
A month prior, Makin said he had helped rake a grass fire off a neighbor's trailer until the fire department came and acknowledged the hard work that firefighters do daily.
Local on 01/20/2018