Johnston County woman, dog perish in house fire

FOUR OAKS, North Carolina (WTVD) -- A faint, smoky odor coated the air in the 600 block of Oliver's Grove Road in Four Oaks nearly 24 hours after the charred mobile home went up in flames.

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Inside, fire officials discovered the bodies of 65-year-old Kay Allen and her Jack Russell terrier, Curly Bob, inside.

Friday was Allen's birthday.

"Bad. Really bad. It's not much left of the structure," a fire official said.

Neighbors said the blaze overtook the sky early Friday morning, about 5 a.m., knocking out power to nearby homes.

"The whole horizon ... I come out that door and was coming out to go to work and everything was lit up," a neighbor said. "I knew something was bad going on."

Allen's children were too heartbroken to talk on camera, but told ABC11 they live right next door to their mother.

They heard a loud boom this morning and when they looked out the window, they saw her home fully engulfed in flames.

Her daughter, who had just seen her mother a few hours before the fire, made the 911 call.

"She was a sweet lady," the neighbor said. "She was a good neighbor."

Family members said Allen had a sense of humor unlike any other, and she loved her dog Curly Bob and was fond of Coca-Cola.

"Praying for the family," the neighbor said. "Everybody is just trying to come together and see what they can do to help. It's a bad situation."

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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