An evening spent away from home took a turn for the worse for Earl Rodgers Monday night.

Rodgers and his wife Phyllis lost their Banks home to a devastating fire. Pictures of children, grandchildren, mementos, furniture, clothing – all gone.

Rodgers said that while he was visiting his son, both men smelled something odd, but couldn’t tell anything was out of the ordinary.

“I could see the house and couldn’t tell anything was wrong,” Rodgers said. “I sat around for about another 30 to 40 minutes and went home.”

That’s when Rodgers realized something was terribly wrong.

“I ran to the front door and opened it and smoke and heat just overtook me,” Rodgers said

It took local fire departments about 20 minutes to respond to the blaze and by the time they arrived the house was fully engulfed.

The firefighters were able to gain control of the fire during the night, but had to be called back the following morning when the fire began to flare up.

“I take my hat off to those guys,” Rodgers said. “They did everything they could to save my house and I don’t think there was anything they didn’t try. One day I’m going to give them a good donation. We need people like them around.”

Although no one was injured and the Rodgers family was able to salvage some small items, the situation has taken its toll on the family.

“It pretty much just wiped us out,” Rodgers said. “We’re staying with my son at the moment and we’re going to work on somewhere else soon, but for now that’s it. It was our home and we lived there for a long time. I want to thank the fire department again, though, they really worked hard.”

Although the fire has been a trial for the Rodgers family, they remain optimistic and will soon be working on a new place to call their own.

“I’m going to get together with my wife and decide on where we can go from here,” Rodgers said. “We’re going to try and find another home pretty quickly, but right now it’s a little early to know. Just going to take some time and talk things over.”