Fire Victims Lose Everything

Two Saturdays ago, Candy Allen heard a noise coming from the lower level of her Ball Ground home.

She thought it was the sound of "girls being girls." The family had just wrapped a Halloween party, and a couple of her niece's friends spent the night.

She went downstairs to quiet them. Husband Randy Allen had to get up early the next morning to go to his second job at Shaw Industries in Cartersville.

"That's when I noticed the flames coming from the kitchen to the dining room ceiling," she said. "And I started opening the bedroom doors and telling everybody, 'The house is on fire! Get out!' "

Everybody except her husband evacuated the home.

Randy Allen, 40, stands 6-foot-4 and weighs about 340 pounds. He thought he should do something—anything—to save what the family had.

He ran toward the kitchen and opened a door that led to the garage. He didn't know that was where the fire started.

"When he opened that garage door, and got the air to it, and it hit that wood, it spread instantly," said Candy Allen, 44. "It was like a big ball of fire just hit him."

Randy Allen received burns over 40 percent of his body. He was transported to Grady Hospital's Burn Center with severe burns to his face, arms, back and feet, spokesman Tim Cavender said the day of the fire.

"The fire marshal told my brother (that my husband's) lucky he's a big man," Candy Allen said. "If he had been an average-sized man, it would have killed him."

The house wasn't so lucky.

"With all that (tongue and groove) wood," Candy Allen said, "it went up like a matchbox."

Instantly, two families lost everything.

"It was my and my husband's home," Candy Allen said. "And I have a (twin) sister. She and her three kids lived with us."

Friend Misty Barry set up an account at to help the family get back on its feet. People can go to any branch and ask to donate to the Allen Family Donation Fund.

"Their car vehicles were also burned up in the fire and the insurance they had does not cover it or provide a rental car," Barry said. "They were renting the home and had no renters insurance.

"We are trying to get involved with the community as much as we can to get them monetary donations as well as food and clothes and everyday necessities."

The American Red Cross covered three nights stay at the Canton . Friends paid for subsequent nights.

"We're just taking it day by day," Candy Allen said.

To help, contact the Allen family at 404-291-4751. The Carmack family can be reached at 770-337-7010.