Four cats were killed in a fire while a couple was shopping Friday morning.

The fire started just after 8 a.m. Friday on Highway 44 in DeLand.

“We were in Walmart, I was buying cat food for Sharon, and Reg called and said the house was on fire,” Ray Somerford said.

Ray, his wife, Sharon and family staying with them for Thanksgiving spent Friday afternoon sifting through the living room looking for anything that could be salvaged in a sea of black soot, but found little.

The four Persian cats Somerford was out buying cat food for didn’t survive.

“They found them under the bed upstairs, the smoke killed them,” Somerford said.

Somerford was thankful no one was home when the fire started.

“The firefighters said the smoke was billowing so black it was a horrible situation, I don’t know that we could have gotten out of the bedrooms and down the stairs,” Somerford said.

The investigation was turned over to the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Somerford says firefighters told him it was almost certainly electrical.

Now with no homeowner’s insurance a tearful Somerford is left wondering how they’ll repair their home of 30 years.

Friends and family have set up a fund to help the couple in their 70s.