{"id":486670,"date":"2026-01-02T08:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T08:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/486670\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T08:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T08:21:13","slug":"she-died-trying-to-save-them-dogs-fort-worth-woman-dies-in-new-years-eve-blaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/486670\/","title":{"rendered":"‘She died trying to save them dogs’ | Fort Worth woman dies in New Year’s Eve blaze"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New Year\u2019s Eve house fire killed a 53-year-old woman and six dogs, and left loved ones grappling with grief and words left unsaid.<\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 Geneva James was just a few blocks from home on New Year\u2019s Eve when her daughter-in-law came rushing to her, frantic and out of breath, trying to explain that the house was on fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know it was a pretty bad fire,\u201d James said, surveying the charred remains of the house.<\/p>\n

The blaze destroyed the home, killed six dogs and claimed the life of Opale Whitney, the mother of James\u2019 nephew. James said Whitney had been inside the house, in a back bedroom, when the fire broke out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stayed mad at each other. but we loved each other and she loved us,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

Whitney, 53, was taken to the hospital, where she later died.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn’t deserve to die like that,\u201d James said. \u201cI never thought she would ever go like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

James said when she arrived at the house, the house was still ablaze. Firefighters had pushed Whitney out a window.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got over here, they were doing CPR on her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n

James says a floor heater caused the fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve had these clothes on since yesterday. I have no change of clothes or nothing,\u201d James said. \u201cI don’t know what to do anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

The house had belonged to James\u2019 aunt, who died in November.<\/p>\n

James said she was the one who had to notify Whitney\u2019s family about her death.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was so strong. She was one of the strong ones,\u201d James said. \u201cShe died trying to save them dogs, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

James said three more dogs were found inside the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnockout, Misty and Boudreax were still in the house, and they were under the bed and they had died of smoke inhalation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In all, six dogs died in the fire. They were buried in the backyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything happened so fast and that’s what I tell my kids never leave home mad. Always tell somebody you love them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As the new year begins, James said she is still struggling with what she did not get the chance to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t get to tell Opale anything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New Year\u2019s Eve house fire killed a 53-year-old woman and six dogs, and left loved ones grappling…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":486671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-486670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115824538251497067","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}