Icicles hung from bushes as firefighters extinguished the lastremnants of a fire that destroyed the Chris Picou family’s homeduring the coldest night of the year.

A short distance away, a bloodied Picou, his wife Laurie andthree children, T.J., Matthew and Christopher, sat in a truck,thankful to have survived the fire that gutted their West CongressStreet home early Friday morning.

“I’m so happy and glad to have my kids. We barely got out ofthere,” Picou said as he talked with a concerned friend over acellular telephone.

The fire began sometime after Picou, the Lincoln CountySheriff’s Department’s K-9 officer, arrived home around 3 a.m.after working a detail in Pike County. He estimated that Laurieawoke him around 4:30 a.m. to tell him the house was on fire.

Laurie Picou said it appeared the fire began on the eastern sideof the home.

“The whole backyard was lit up like daylight,” she said.

“The house was completely gone by then,” Chris Picou said.

Laurie, Matthew, 8, and Christopher, 5, got out of the home bygoing through one of the children’s bedroom windows. Chris andT.J., 12, escaped through the parents’ bedroom window.

“I had to break the window because it was froze shut,” saidPicou, his cheek and a right hand bleeding from cuts and burns.

Five family pets — three dogs and two cats inside the homebecause of the cold weather — did not survive. The low temperatureThursday night and Friday morning was 14 degrees.

Included were a new narcotics dog that Picou had recentlypurchased and his long-time narcotics enforcement companion,Rico.

“He was my boy…,” Picou said about the dog that was sleepingin the bedroom with Chris and his wife. “I tried to get him to jumpout the window, but I guess he panicked and didn’t understand.”

Brookhaven Fire Department Chief Paul Cartwright said the home,which was once occupied by Mayor Bill Godbold, was fully involvedwhen firefighters arrived on the scene around 5:17 a.m. Godboldlived in the home in the mid 1980s, fire department officialssaid.

Laurie Picou said appliances in the home were turned off.

Cartwright said a cause of the fire had not been determined. Thestate fire marshal was called to the scene to start aninvestigation.

“It’s going to be a while because we’ve got to let it cool downbefore we can inspect the fire scene,” Cartwright said aboutdetermining a cause.

Picou’s home was the second Lincoln County Sheriff’sDepartment’s officer’s home destroyed by fire in less than twoyears. Deputy Sudie Palomarez’s home on Highway 583 burned inNovember 2001.

Lincoln County Sheriff Lynn Boyte and other department officialswere in the process of setting up fund-raisers to help the Picous.A special account has been set up at State Bank, officialssaid.

Despite the tragedy, Chris Picou managed to find a small bit ofhumor in the situation.

“I’m going to find a way to get in the paper,” said Picou, whois often featured in news reports on his successful drugenforcement activities.

Laurie Picou was hopeful and said the family will be all rightas it recovers from the fire. She was thankful that Chris and theirchildren survived.

“That’s all I need. Everything else is trivial,” she said.