Animal rescue destroyed by weekend fire

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

GROVER HILL — It’s a heartbreaking story. An animal rescue facility outside of Grover Hill was destroyed by flames early Saturday morning.

The owners of JAR, or Justice Animal Rescue, were awakened at 4:45 a.m. to find the rescue, Dog City, engulfed in flames. 911 was called immediately, but the building was gone by the time firefighters arrived at the scene.

“All the fire department could do at this point was stop the fire from spreading to our home,” JAR wrote in a Facebook post.

The dogs in the building did not survive and the everything was destroyed by the fire.

“The fire was a complete and total loss, we lost everything,” the rescue said in its post. “We have no crates, no kennels, our outdoor dog area now needs major repairs, even the doghouses burned. All of our dog food is burned, our medications, vaccines, basically everything we needed was in the building and now it’s all gone.”

The post also said the future of JAR is uncertain, as it will take time to rebuild.

“We currently still have 45 dogs in foster who need us and lots of dogs waiting for their chance at freedom,” JAR wrote.

The rescue also wrote that the cause of the fire may have been a window air conditioning unit.

Donations are being sought via Venmo, @JARjusticeanimalrescue; PayPal, @justice957, or through GoFundMe (click here for direct link). In addition, an Amazon wish list has been set up and can be found here.

“We appreciate everyone’s support during this hard time,” JAR wrote. “We will be posting when we plan clean up efforts but for now we ask that everyone give us time to grieve and get the emergency supplies we need over the next few days to get us through the week.