Ms Kelley said to USA Today that the downstairs tenants came running up to alert everyone, but black smoke had already filled both units. The fire quickly spread upstairs and “over to the house next door”.

She said their family dog Blue refused to leave their one-year-old baby who was still inside a playpen in the house and “alerted rescue to where she was located”.

Ms Kelley said when the fire started she and her fiancé DaQuan Davis were at a Walmart with her two oldest children, who are seven and nine years old respectively.

“I got a phone call that the house was on fire. My fiancé’s brother was at the home and he’s the one that called,” she was quoted as saying.

“He was trying to rush and get the dog, the kids, and everybody out of the house.”

Blue, a three-year-old rescue dog who is a Pitbull Lab mix, has been with Ms Kelley for two years.

“(Blue) is very protective over all of us,” she said. “He also loves his best friend Smokey, the family cat.”

The family are now staying in a minivan after moving to a hotel for the first two nights after the fire.

Ms Kelley said that her family has not been able to get compensation for their losses and their landlord has suggested that they start a “GoFundMe page and go to a shelter.”

“I just paid him (the) rent two days prior to this, so when I asked him if he could give me something back, I got told ‘No, I have bills, too,’” Ms Kelley said.

“The reality is that when you are in a fire situation, there is little help out there to get people back on their feet as renters,” said Poni Melange, a family friend who has been advocating for the family.

Ms Kelley said that she wants her children to be safe.

“I truly just want my kids to be safe and warm and to be kids, not worry about where we are sleeping every night,” she said.