But it will take even longer before they find answers about the Sunday night fire that left their family dead.
“We don’t know what happened,” said Virginia Boddy as she thumbed through old photographs of her dead rela-tives – son-in-law Albert Bass, age 65, granddaughters Teri Deal and Kathy Bass, ages 45 and 43 respectively, and great-grandson Adrian Bass, age 11.
“We’ve lost them all.”
The Boddys also recently lost their daughter, Cheryl – Albert Bass’ wife – two weeks ago to a heart attack.
Now, Cleburne County deputies, state fire marshals and the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences are investi-gating the fire that claimed the rest of the family – something that could take weeks to understand, said Craig Boddy, brother-in-law to Albert Bass and son of Wallace and Virginia Boddy.
According to Coroner Rudy Rooks, the fire started between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Sunday night at the family residence on 67 County Rd. 237 – a wood-frame, white-painted building that used to be the old Borden Springs Post Office, Wallace Boddy said.
Although Rooks said the cause and origin have not been determined, Craig Boddy said investigators told him they though the fire began in the front room of the house.
“The fire hit, and they (Albert Bass and his daughters and grandson) didn’t have thirty seconds to do anything,” Craig Boddy said.
Albert, Kathy and Adrian Bass were in bed and Teri Deal was in the shower when the flames and smoke enveloped the house, acording to Craig Boddy, who spent most of the afternoon with his parents, trying to understand from in-vestigators what had happened and salvage what they could from the house.
“The coroner told us it burned hot and it burned fast,” said Craig Boddy.
Assistant Fire Marshal Scott Pilgreen said two of his investigators spent most of Sunday night and early Monday morning trying to get the fire under control. Attempts to reach the Cleburne County Sheriff’s Office Monday were unsuccessful.
The left side of the house facing County Road 237 is mostly gone – what remains is charred wood and ash. The in-side walls and floor are blackened, much of the interior unrecognizable. But the frame of the house and majority of the right side is still intact.
Rooks said DFS was conducting autopsies on the bodies and a final report was not available, but Craig Boddy said he and his parents were operating under the assumption that smoke inhalation caused the deaths of their Borden Spring relatives.
Craig Boddy, who lives in Douglasville, Ga., and Wallace and Virginia Boddy, Lineville residents, all said it was impossible to wrap their minds around the tragedy.
They had last seen Albert Bass just hours before the fire at Virginia Boddy’s 86th birthday party Sunday afternoon. Wallace Boddy said he and his wife were awakened at 5 a.m. Monday by Craig’s frantic knocking on their front door.
“I thought, ‘something is badly wrong,’” Wallace Boddy said.
He described Albert, his daughter Cheryl, granddaughters Teri and Kathy and great-grandson Adrian as an “ex-tremely close” family who spent a lot of their time at the Piedmont Seventh-day Adventist Church. Adrian Bass was home-schooled, and Albert Bass worked two days a week at Layfield Motors in Atlanta, Craig Boddy said.
When his sister Cheryl died two weeks ago, Craig Boddy said she and Albert Bass had been married for 46 years.
“Now they’re all gone,” he said, brushing ash from his gloved hands. “We’re trying to block out the emotional side of it and focus on what has to be done.”
Contact Star Staff Writer Cameron Steele at 256-235-3562.
