Two Duvall families lost beloved animals, plus the next few months worth of feed, supplies and shelter in a barn fire Monday, April 13.

Miles and Amy Nickerson Parker and Janelle Braun housed a broad variety of animals in the barn, including rabbits, chickens, alpacas and horses.

The fire, which started around 2:30 a.m. on Parker’s property, was found to be caused by a faulty electrical outlet.

A spokesperson for the families, Paul Laudanski, could not confirm the losses of the two families, but said he knew that five horses had been saved and one, a rescue horse named Kiki, was badly burned and had to be euthanized.

“It was heart-wrenching,” said Laudanski, a friend of the Parkers and a horse-lover like Nickerson Parker and Braun.

Three alpacas, a mini-horse, and some chickens and rabbits were also killed.

Laudanski said another concern for friends who arrived to help was that it started to rain, and there was no shelter for the surviving animals.

A neighbor with an empty barn offered the structure as a temporary shelter for the animals, Laudanski said, and Braun’s mother created a GoFundMe page asking for help for the families. At the time of publication, 241 people donated $16,820 in seven days.

“The families that are involved feel very blessed and … humbled by the outpouring of support at large,” Laudanski said.

He also said volunteers hoped to start building a temporary shelter for the surviving animals over the past weekend. Just the planning for that illustrated for Laudanski how much the families had lost.

We were… trying to find some tape measures, just to get the dimensions of the shelter,” he said. “The tape measures, they were in the barn.”

Local businesses Rockin’ E Feeds, Country Collections, Twice Blessed Consignment and Duvall Family Drugs are all taking donations to help the Parker family.

Local restaurants Red Pepper Pizza and Starbucks donated food to the volunteers.

For updates, visit www.facebook.com/ParkerFireRescue.