Fire Department No-shows in Gracie Rock Fire
A family of three is left without a home to call their own after losing everything in a house fire earlier this week. On Monday, around two-thirty p.m. in Gracie Rock Village, the Young family was socializing in their yard when they were alerted by a friend that their house was on fire. Sixty-four-year-old Carlton Young rushed into action, attempting to douse the flames with buckets of water, as his eighty-three-year-old mother was still inside the house at the time he was alerted. Members of the community assisted in the attempt, but were unsuccessful in putting out the flames. Fortunately, no lives were lost but not a single possession was able to be recovered. According to the family, while the fire department was called, they are still waiting for a truck that never arrived. News Five’s Britney Gordon Reports.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Eighty-three-year-old Laurel Young was enjoying an afternoon like any other when the smell of smoke suddenly alerted her that something was wrong and needed to be investigated. With some assistance, she was able to locate the source of the smell within her home and only had minutes to escape before things went ablaze.
Laurel Young
Laurel Young, Fire Victim
“I had a friend that came and hail me, a guy. And I told him that long time no see. He said yes miss Young, long time no see. He said I come hail you now. I said, boy, I’m happy for that but I smell smoke so please let me get off the bed and go and see where it is. And then he said, okay. And when I opened the next door to the refrigerator, I saw the smoke behind the refrigerator coming. And I said, oh my God. And I run back into the room. I said the house is on fire, boy. Go and call my son. Quick, go call my son. And he run off the step and I ran behind him. And that’s where the fires just start up, right behind the refrigerator. There was no engine. It didn’t come. Only the police that came out. Nobody else. And the people that were in the yard, they came over and helped throw water on the house. But they couldn’t out it. It was too big.”
Britney Gordon
“So has anything managed to be recovered after the fire?”
Laurel Young
“Nothing. Nothing. Everything burned right down. Everything. Everything, not even a picture of me.”
Her son, sixty-four-year-old Carlton Young, was in the yard at the time and sprung into action attempting to douse the flames, driven by fear for his elderly mother, who had fortunately, successfully escaped the burning building.
Carlton Young
Carlton Young, Fire Victim
“We were socializing over there with the people that come out here to picnic, swimming, and then the guys they told me my mom is calling me. And I came in. I run around here, came in here and run up the stairs. My mom was out already. And when I went in there and I look in the kitchen, I see fire behind me, like the fridge. I got some water. I run right back up and start to throw water and I hollered for help. Everybody came out and assist, we opened up the vat and run water and throw water but the fire looked like it was already too big. It got in the ceiling, in the wall and I just see the smoke coming out and it gets so bad and the ceilings are dropping in and when we decided to grab something it was too late because the fire drop in my back. And too much smoke. We can’t get in there. We can’t get nothing, save nothing. All I save is my phone because it was in my pocket. Nothing. Everything gone. Gone. Gone.”
During his venture into the burning building, Young sustained several injuries due to falling debris and rising flames.
Carlton Young
“The fire got in the ceiling. It got in the ceiling and burning up there and we can’t get up there and we just throw the water where we see the fire. It got so bad and then the ceiling collapsed and I was trying to get something and the stuff dropped in my back, burned me, messed up my eye and the back here. See? Burned me. And we just watched the house burnt until it looked like this.”
According to Young, a call was made to the fire department but no truck was ever sent to the scene. The house burned for about seven hours on Monday and only just stopped smoking this morning, due to the rain.
Carlton Young
“I had to go to them. They never came out. Not yet. No police no, fireman come up and say oh, it’s electrical or nothing. I’m just assuming it’s that. I don’t know. But I feel like it’s that. And nobody is going to light no fire in here. We didn’t do that.”
The Young family is well known within the community and is receiving assistance from kind neighbors and family members. However, with over one hundred fifty thousand dollars in losses, they are nowhere close to being back on their feet and are depending on the generosity of others for further help.
Laurel Young
“I would have to say I am a popular cook and I cook all my food on the fire heart. I do everything on my fire heart. Nothing else. On my fire heart. That’s why everybody know me. Even in Belize, they would like Miss Laurel potato pudding. That’s my food.”
Britney Gordon
“Are you guys going to try to keep up this business when you try to get your life back together?”
Laurel Young
“It’s very hard with me. My son has to take it over completely if he wish to do it, because I can’t make it no more. Especially with the fire. I lose everything. All my pot ware and different things I lose that is important to me in my life.”
Carlton Young
“It’s like I’m dreaming and this didn’t happen to me at all. I wish I’m dreaming. Everything my mother have, her wedding gifts still in there, and she married before I was born. And these things I can’t take, I don’t see them no more, and she will never get that back again.”
Britney Gordon for News Five.
