After paying off the mortgage on their home last fall, Carol and William Daily put off buying insurance.

As a fire roared through their two-story home at 1330 Langmeyer St. in southwest Colorado Springs early Sunday, the couple realized what a horrible mistake they had made.

“I’m still in shock,” said Carol Daily, 75, who works as a laundry supervisor at the Antlers Hilton hotel downtown.

The Dailys lived in the house for 30 years and had custody of three grandchildren, ages 20, 17 and 14.

All the family members escaped the house unharmed except for the 20-year-old grandchild, John Michael Bornman, who suffered minor injuries from smoke inhalation and was hospitalized briefly.

William Daily, 71, a former maintenance worker at the Kissing Camels Golf Course, said he was laid off in October and didn’t have enough money for insurance.

“I was trying to save a couple of months to get it,” he said.

William Daily, who will return to his job in April, said he plans to live in a recreational vehicle parked next to the house while he begins repairs.

On Sunday, the smell of smoke still hung in the cold air. A family cat named Midnight shivered on the front steps, and piles of wet clothes and charred furniture lay in the yard.

William Daily said the blaze began in the basement, but the cause isn’t known.

In order to control the blaze, firefighters punched holes through walls and knocked out windows.

“The whole downstairs is destroyed,” Carol Daily said. “The whole house is water-damaged.”

Because of the fire, Carol Daily said she has postponed her retirement plans.

As for homeowners coverage, “Don’t ever go without insurance,” Carol Daily said.  —Call the writer at 476-4825.

Midnight the family cat walks past some of the charred remains of household items at a home on Langmeyer St. on Sunday afternoon. Five members of the Daily family were displaced during a house fire early Sunday morning on Sunday, February 21, 2010. (The Gazette/Jerilee Bennett) Photo by JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE

Jerilee Bennett