Humor is central to Pahrump resident Jacob Pennell’s identity.
So, as he watched firefighters battle a fire that swept through his home on the afternoon of June 26, he turned to his wife and tried to crack a joke.
“This is not the level of remodel I agreed to,” he said.
Pennell, a 41-year-old Air Force veteran and comedian, said he was at his home that day when he heard a loud pop. Minutes later, the house was ablaze.
Pennell ran out the front door and futilely turned on a fire extinguisher. He made sure that his wife, children and dog, Honey Bear, were all able to escape. He then grabbed a garden hose, curse words running through his mind as he tried to dampen the flames.
While Pennell and his family were able to evacuate, they lost most of the things that made up the life they had built inside their 2,000-square-foot, four-bedroom home.
Pennell bought the house with a VA home loan in 2021, seeking what he described as “small town living.” His family had previously lived in a trailer park in Indian Springs while he was stationed at Creech Air Force Base.
Now, little remains on their land in the southwestern edge of Pahrump about 50 miles outside Las Vegas near the California line.
Few of the home’s features are identifiable.
The front door lies warped near the house’s former entrance, remnants of red paint barely visible. A singed bed frame sits in what was the primary bedroom. A cracked sink leans against a pile of debris.
Investigators believe the cause of the fire was electrical and fueled by strong winds, according to Pennell, who said his family is stuck in limbo. They are waiting to hear from insurance agents before they can make a decision about how they will rebuild.
For Pennell, this is a devastating loss, as the house was intended to be the place where he and his wife, Nikki, raised their three children, Addyson, Isaiah and Kyleah.
“We wanted a place to have roots for our kids so that way they knew where they were coming home to,” Pennell said.
Before the roof burned down and the walls were reduced to rubble, they celebrated birthdays and holidays there. On Easter Sundays, they would run around with Nerf guns in the backyard, the desert stretching beyond the fence.
Pennell and his wife had devoted countless hours to home improvement projects to create a safe and comfortable place for their family. They were building a deck to the side of the house when the fire occurred.
“A house is a house until you make it a home, and my wife worked really hard to make this a home for everybody,” he said.
Flames turned cherished things they could once hold into ash: birth and marriage certificates, his wife’s inherited recipe book, his son’s collection of Harry Potter books, Pennell’s military memorabilia from over 20 years of service, even his hot sauce collection.
“You lose who you are when you leave the military,” he said. “This is a wipe of so many things, because you sit back and you’re like, ‘Oh, I can just run to the house and grab that.’ And then you realize that you don’t have that anymore.”
Pennell called the support he has received from the community “phenomenal.” The family is living with their next-door neighbor. Living Free Cafe, about 14 miles away, has offered free meals. Countless Pahrump residents have offered to donate clothing and shoes.
And nonprofit Vegas VeteranVoices has coordinated a GoFundMe, which had raised over $11,000 by the time of publication.
Brenton Mann, the founder of nonprofit Vegas Veteran Voices, said the organization had both personal and professional connections to Pennell, and he was eager to do anything he could to help the family.
“He would do this for us, so I couldn’t not do this for him,” Mann said.
Contact Sophie Baker at sbaker@reviewjournal.com.
