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Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

An ear­ly morn­ing fire along Ve­ga De Oropouche, To­co Main Road, has left three fam­i­lies—15 peo­ple in to­tal—home­less, with loss­es es­ti­mat­ed at close to $1 mil­lion.

The blaze, which be­gan around 3.30 am yes­ter­day, re­port­ed­ly be­gan at a mi­ni-mart owned by one of the three Homer broth­ers and quick­ly spread to the ad­ja­cent hous­es. With­in min­utes, the flames en­gulfed all three build­ings, burn­ing every­thing to the ground and leav­ing the fam­i­lies with on­ly the clothes they were wear­ing. Two ve­hi­cles, a dog, and a pet bullfinch val­ued at $10,000 were al­so de­stroyed.