Knoxville to raise money for firefighter who lost home and barn [Video]

KNOXVILLE, Iowa — The community of Knoxville is stepping up to support someone who’s done a fair share of saving, Cortiney Goemaat, who serves with the Indiana Township Fire Department.

On Sunday a benefit will help Goemaat and her family, who lost their home and barn in a fire on Oct. 11.

Goemaat is used to responding to fires as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. However, she never expected her own colleagues to be saving her family of five and their home.

“I believe things happen for a reason,” Goemaat said. “There’s a lot of updates we wanted to do and we started doing, and now it just gives us the opportunity to start completely over.”

Some of Goemaat’s colleagues were among those putting out the flames.

“It was different,” Goemaat said. “That’s for sure, definitely not something you expect …