Family Loses Everything In Fire Just Weeks Into The New Year

A family of three is left without a dollar to their name after a fire wreaked havoc on their home this morning in Gardenia village.  Mother of two, Darlene Dawson was carrying out her normal morning routine when her three-year-old son alerted her of a fire inside the house. The two managed to escape with their lives intact, but lost everything else but the clothes on their backs. For more on this story, we spoke with the family.

Britney Gordon, reporting

For Darlene Dawson, it was a morning like any other, taking a shower, preparing breakfast, and sending her children off to school. But all that that would come to a screeching halt around 9:15 a.m. when her son of only three years came running in with the news that their house was up in flames.

Darlene Dawson

Darlene Dawson, Fire Victim

“I’d just had something to eat and I went to the bathroom, and I was in the bathroom for no time- seconds and my baby ran inside and he hollered, mommy fire! But I heard something drop. He looked like he threw his tablet on the ground and he ran to come hail me, mommy, come! Fire! Let’s Go! So that’s when I came out. But When I came out, thinking I would save something, fire was already in my face. I couldn’t do anything but just run out.”

Neighbors were quick to notice the smoke and flames. Dawson’s niece, Merlena Lightburn, who lives nearby, came rushing over to help and had her mother alert the authorities. Luckily no one was injured.

Merlena Lightburn

Merlena Lightburn, Niece of Victim

“Personnel from the fire department, when the fire blazed, they were passing at the same time and they stopped and they came back and it was like, did anybody call the fire [department]? Like, yeah, we did, like twenty minutes ago and he was like, okay, I already called them too. And they took like forty-five minutes. They came, brought some water, like ten- twenty minutes after they ran out of water, had to go back, take like almost an hour to come back. Everything is burned to the ground. She couldn’t even save anything, not even a panty, anything, not even her cell phone”

Lightburn explained that her aunt had aspirations to start a car washing business but unfortunately, all her legal documents and supplies were victims to the flames, accumulating thousands of dollars in losses.

Merlena Lightburn

“So trying to ask for help in any kind of way, any kind of donation. She has a fourteen year old. She’s a size small in clothes. And in shoes it’s a seven, eight. She has a son, two years or three years old. He’s probably a two tee or three tee.  I mean she lost everything, not even a shoe she can save. “Anything. Nothing.”

Dawson is left in a state of shock, unsure of what she will do next and left to hope for the kindness of the community for assistance.

Britney Gordon

“What are your next steps after this?”

Darlene Dawson

“I don’t know. I just have to look and pray and just do what I have to do. Cause it’s already gone. I can’t bring it back. I saved my baby, saved my life. Cause I was in there trapped. I had to run out. I can’t worry about nothing else. As long as I safe and he safe, I’m good.”

Merlena Lightburn

“If you guys willing to help her in any form of way, my number is 623 0550. She is my neighbor next door, right over on the other side. So if you guys willing to help, please, I’m begging because her daughter’s school just started, she’s in second form in Ladyville Technical High. Not even a uniform we could have saved, anything. We’re still in shock. The whole village still is in shock”

Britney Gordon for News Five.