CONNOQUENESSING TWP — A fire that apparently started when the furnace of a trailer at 121 Hawk Drive exploded this morning has left a family of three with no home and only the clothes on their backs.

Homeowner Debbie Ruth said she was half-asleep at about 6:46 a.m. when she began to smell kerosene and saw the home’s furnace, which is next to her room at one end of the trailer, blow open. Ruth is the owner of Ruffles and Truffles, a specialty clothing store on Main Street in Butler.

“She saw basically a giant burst of fire blow the door open,” said Ruth’s 24-year-old son, Shadoe Brandt, who was also home when the fire began.

Brandt said he and his mother tried using fire extinguishers, but were unable to stop the blaze from spreading. They escaped with just the clothes they were wearing and the family’s dog, a Peekapoo named Gizmo.

Both Brandt and Ruth were treated on the scene for smoke inhalation, but were otherwise uninjured, they said.

But emergency officials say the trailer — made up of two singlewide trailers joined together — is a total loss after the blaze, which ate through one side of the home and continued to produce heavy smoke as multiple fire companies worked for more than an hour to extinguish the flames.

Ruth said the home was uninsured. She said the family had attempted to get insurance for the trailer, but were denied because of its age.

Steve Bicehouse, county director of emergency services and chief of Evans City Fire Department, was on the scene and called the home “a complete loss.”

Ruth said the family — her husband, Rex, is a truck driver and was away at the time — was unable to save anything except Gizmo from the flames. She said she wasn’t able to find their cat, Willow, in the aftermath either, and also believe her chameleon and various fish she kept in a fish tank were killed during the blaze.

“We lost everything, and we have no insurance,” she said.

Bicehouse said that emergency responders had also contacted The American Red Cross on the family’s behalf.

Ruth’s daughter, Serena, said the family was reaching out to people for help going forward, and asked people to donate to an online effort.

“My parents are the type to do anything for anybody,” she said. “If the community could come together and help them out in their time of need, it would be great.”

She said that the family had set up a fundraising page on the crowdfunding site Gofundme. The page can be found here: http://bit.ly/2jj0t2e.