Veteran, 70, loses everything in massive Ross Township fire that also destroyed auto shop

As flames leaped into the air Wednesday night from Tao’s Auto Service, Lori Lott and her daughter Riley rushed to find her 70-year-old father William.

“You can’t even really notice there is a 3-bedroom home connected to this establishment, obviously when she got here, she started panicking saying where’s my pap. They were like there is nobody to get out, she was like yes there is a home back there,” Lott said.

Thankfully William had gotten himself out when he started seeing smoke coming through his floorboards of his living room.

“He only had enough time to have the clothes on his back. He doesn’t have anything at this point, the poor man doesn’t even have his dentures,” Lott said.

As a Vietnam veteran from a strong military family, he lost his medals and a Purple Heart. Plus all the home videos and pictures of his wife who passed years ago and his children and grandchildren.

Most of which was kept close to him in his bedroom, as firefighters dug through the debris on Thursday, one special memento was found.

“There’s a lot of ash, rubble on his bedroom floor. I can’t even believe they ended up finding my mother’s wedding band. When he came home yesterday from having that now did make a world of a difference to him,” Lott said.

His family is raising money to help him get back on his feet. The GoFundMe to help her can be found here:

Click here for GoFundMe set up by the family.

As for what started the fire, that’s still under investigation.

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