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Our neighbor's house burned down last night


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Our neighbor's house burned down last night
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Jerman
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Siloam Springs, AR
 
2008-03-25, 11:48

Last night my wife rushed into my office to tell me that our neighbors (across the street) was on fire. The mother and father were understandably hysterical, and were yelling that their FIVE kid were trapped upstairs. My wife and I immediately started praying. It was just such a helpless feeling for US watching, so I cannot even begin to imagine for the parents. We were at least able to give the mother a blanket, as she did not have anything to wear. We watched everything unfold over the next couple of hours. 6 firetrucks, 4 ambulances. Then the coroner arrived. Found out this morning that all five children died in the fire. This is just so sad, as we knew the children a bit, they came by on Halloween, etc. The youngest was 7 years old; the oldest 13.

You can read an early news story about it here:
http://nwahomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=11321

It was just so unreal to see the pain the father was going through, knowing his five kids were upstairs. I just don't know what else to say.
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Fahrenheit
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2008-03-25, 11:52

Man, i'm so sorry to hear this - must be terrible to witness. Hope you keep ok.
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veryamusing
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2008-03-25, 11:55

I'm so sorry, Jerman...
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Mancomb Seepgood
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2008-03-25, 12:21

Oh my god.
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Jerman
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2008-03-25, 12:30

Quote:
Originally Posted by Farenheit View Post
Man, i'm so sorry to hear this - must be terrible to witness. Hope you keep ok.
I know I will be fine. I just feel for the parents so much. Very glad we were able to do the little bit we could. I just talked with the brother of the mom, and we are going to do what we can to help. They are there now rescuing the few belongings they can. Gave him my # just in case. They are worried it could even be vandalized! I just cannot figure out why anyone would ever take advantage of a situation like this.

Also it looks like my interview, along with my wife's will be on the news tonight. I'll post a link if it is put online.
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Taskiss
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2008-03-25, 12:36

It made CNN...

Here's the link they provided:
http://www.4029tv.com/news/15701077/detail.html
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Kickaha
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2008-03-25, 12:38

That's horrible.
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psmith2.0
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2008-03-25, 12:43

That's awful. All five children?

Less than two months ago, the house two doors down from my sister burned to the ground. The family was gone at the time, so nobody was hurt. But the loss of the house (and everything they owned) devastated the family enough, so I can't imagine what these two parents are going through...losing their home, all their belongings and their five children...in one horrible event.

I don't know how you cope with that. I can't even imagine...it's too big. You have nothing left...any 1-2 of those things, and you'd have the remaining to fall back on or to comfort you in some way (house burned down, but your kids are safe and alive and the family is intact, etc.). But this? Everything, literally, was taken from them. That's about the saddest thing I can imagine.

I'm not entirely sure that I'd have the ability - or even the will - to climb over that particular hurdle. They've got quite a road to travel. I hope for the best.

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zippy
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2008-03-25, 13:10

That is truly awful. My stomach has a knot, and I don't even know this poor family. Like 'scates said, I don't see how you could ever recover from something like this. I've seen how the loss of 1 child can devastate parents, but all of your children?? That's unimaginable.

Do you know where children get all of their energy? - They suck it right out of their parents!
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Stephen Campbell
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2008-03-25, 14:08

... and my campaign for co-sleeping continues...
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Kickaha
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2008-03-25, 14:18

Nicely sympathetic there, Stephen.
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709
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2008-03-25, 14:19

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psmith2.0
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2008-03-25, 14:26

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Campbell View Post
... and my campaign for co-sleeping continues...
But we're not talking infants and toddlers here. They were from 7-13. Are kids of that age/size routinely sleeping in their parent's beds? I can't imagine.



I don't think it applies here. These weren't 10-month-old quintuplets, isolated at the far end of the house.

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kieran
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2008-03-25, 14:47

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Campbell View Post
... and my campaign for co-sleeping continues...
and that should continue until what age there Stephen?

That's a dumb thing to come in here and preach about.

These were "grown" children. Not toddlers or infants, but kids big enough to be sleeping in their own beds.

It's just unfortunate that the parents were downstairs and couldn't make it up to help the kids out.

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
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psmith2.0
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2008-03-25, 15:02

Instead of the "co-sleeping" thing, which probably has no bearing or place in a discussion of children these ages, stories like this - as sad as they are - should, instead, spur people to take a moment to think about their individual fire/emergency situations.

From the story, it seems like maybe the parent's master bedroom was downstairs, while all the kids slept in rooms upstairs? Does that mean fire alarms didn't go off upstairs, where the sleeping kids could hear them?

If one wall unit goes off, does that trigger others?

And if the kids did hear the alarms and were able to wake up and were in a position to act or try to get out, I wonder if this poor family ever once sat down and talked about "escape" strategies and so forth? I know some people put those rope ladder thingies in upstairs rooms. That might've made all the difference in this story. Some would scoff at such a notion, but I'd much rather my eight-year-old clumsily make their way down that in the dark and sprain an ankle, as opposed to the horrific alternative.



If your kids are sleeping up on a second, or higher floor (with or without you nearby), I think it's important that, as a family, some discussions take place, and some actual precautions and preparations implemented (rope or window ladders or some sort of secondary, "we can't get down the stairs...they're blocked with flames!" escape).



It would be a much more positive, uplifting story to hear about if instead of standing on the street, feeling helpless and watching in horror, the parents ran to the bedroom windows and were helping all five children down to safety because everyone - the seven family members - knew exactly what to do, and where to go, in such a situation and had a solid, rehearsed plan in place.

Does no good to "woulda/coulda/shoulda" this kinda of stuff when it's tragically too late (as I'm sure these parents will deal with at some point). So I would encourage everyone here to consider this awful situation, and perhaps sit down with your family ASAP and make sure you're all on the same page, and you've got procedures and plans in place before the unthinkable happens, when it can make a difference. How to get out, where to meet, etc.

I don't think enough people take this sort of thing seriously. It always happens to "someone else". But guess what? We're everybody else's "someone else", so...

If one positive thing could come out of such a lousy, sad story, maybe it'll spur another family somewhere to take steps to make sure this never happens to them. That's something everyone here could - and should - take from this awful news.
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thegelding
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2008-03-25, 15:12

man, that is awful....

i couldn't be those parents today, tomorrow nor ever...that will be impossible to live with...

g


not to cast any harm to the parents, but i know either me or my wife wouldn't have made it out of the house, if not both of us...i would have had to go upstairs no matter what...

also a good reason to have a dog...dogs are great at waking you for fire and smoke and 3 times a night to pee (gotta take the bad with the good)

g

crazy is not a rare human condition

everything is food if you chew hard enough
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colivigan
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2008-03-25, 18:16

Wow, what a tragedy. I can't begin to imagine what those parents might be feeling.

Quote:
Originally Posted by pscates2.0 View Post
It would be a much more positive, uplifting story to hear about if instead of standing on the street, feeling helpless and watching in horror, the parents ran to the bedroom windows and were helping all five children down to safety because everyone - the seven family members - knew exactly what to do, and where to go, in such a situation and had a solid, rehearsed plan in place.
Great post. Something every parent should think about. We like to take our kids (or did when they were younger) to the open house at the local fire house every year. It's fun to sit in the trucks and stuff, but they also make a point of preaching family evacuation plans. Good stuff.

When I was growing up, my room was all by itself on the third floor. My parents made me keep a rope ladder by the window, which I thought was kind of silly (until I was a teenager, when it came in handy a few times). Thankfully, I never had to use it for its intended purpose.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Campbell View Post
... and my campaign for co-sleeping continues...
Now that's just strange and disturbing.
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turtle
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Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2008-03-25, 18:18

My heart sinks for that family.

I'm not sure how I would respond, but it would be hard not to die in the fire myself saving the kids.

Edit: As for Stephen's comment, you need to just quit coming back. You're worse than a bad penny.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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MBHockey
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2008-03-25, 18:23

Exactly what I was thinking, turtle. Probably the last thing I would have done was prayed.

This is an absolutely horrible tragedy. I have no idea what that must feel like.

My heart goes out to the parents
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turtle
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2008-03-25, 18:31

Quote:
Originally Posted by MBHockey View Post
Exactly what I was thinking, turtle. Probably the last thing I would have done was prayed.

This is an absolutely horrible tragedy. I have no idea what that must feel like.

My heart goes out to the parents
Well, please understand that I would have been praying the whole time I was working to get the kids. Prayer isn't always on your knees.

(In case I never mentioned it, I am a volunteer fireman.)

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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kieran
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2008-03-25, 18:44

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle2472 View Post
Well, please understand that I would have been praying the whole time I was working to get the kids. Prayer isn't always on your knees.

(In case I never mentioned it, I am a volunteer fireman.)
I don't think you have. That's a very worthwhile thing to do turtle.

As for myself being in this situation, there's no way I go out of that house without my kids. If all of my kids were upstairs, you can be damn sure I'm making my way upstairs to get to them. If they don't make it out, neither would I.

No more Twitter. It's Mastodon now.
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Fahrenheit
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2008-03-25, 18:46

Please try and bear in mind that we really don't know the specifics of this case, and hindsight is a painfully easy thing in this. So we don't know whether they physically could have gone up or not - I'm guessing not.
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apple007
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2008-03-25, 19:08

This is a sad story but the "accident" angle seems a little suspect. As of a 5:36 p.m. update to the link 'Taskiss' posted at 13:36, the police executed a search warrant at the home and found drugs and drug paraphernalia, including meth; police sources say there was a "history of arrests and disturbances" at the home; the parents had a working smoke alarm in their first-floor bedroom while no battery was found for the kids' second-floor bedroom; and the home itself is a very small two-story whose second-floor window(s) [see picture at above link] are no more than ten or 12 feet off the ground. Unless the windows were locked, it seems odd that none of the kids were able to make it to a window, or that the parents couldn't break the damn windows from below.

In yet another oddity, the kids' ages are listed as five to 13, with the mother listed at just 27. Unless she should have been described as the stepmother, it seems like the father should have been locked up long ago.

In any event, this is a sad, sad story. Life certainly deals too many kids a really bad/unlucky hand.
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turtle
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2008-03-25, 19:19

IF the kids were asleep during the onset of the blaze they likely died of smoke inhalation before they ever burned. Add to the fact that in a blaze there is always disorientation. Bottom line is they didn't have a great chance to make it out on their own.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
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Jerman
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2008-03-25, 19:29

Just a few updates... They aired some more details tonight, and an interview and some footage I shot on a couple of channels. I will try to post those when I get a chance.

As for escaping, the parents woke up shortly before we arrived outside, it seems. They woke up late, as their smoke detector downstairs went off, but was triggered only when the smoke made it downstairs. The firefighters did find one upstairs, but think either it did not have a battery, or the battery was not working.

The father did try to run in a couple of times, but the smoke was so thick, he had to come back out. I have no idea if they even had working phones, so they were running around trying to find someone to call 911. When the firefighters arrived, it took them awhile, as the staircase was completely gone. Apparently it was very narrow, so it was one of the first things to go. And as you may have seen in the picture, there was no way to access the second floor easily from the ground. It even took the firefighters several minutes to knock out the windows!

The news stations have said the firefighters found two girls in their beds, the other three on the floor (probably where they slept), at least inferring that they never woke up.

Anyways, it looks most likely the fire was started from a space heater. They had investigators combing the whole place this morning. Just overall such a sad story. I keep thinking back to last night watching their mother pound on our neighbors door, screaming for help. She was completely unresponsive to me. The father was pretty much the same, screaming that his 5 kids were up there, etc.

Anyway, not much else to say at this point I guess.
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Jerman
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Join Date: Jun 2005
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2008-03-25, 19:31

Oh, just one more little thing. For the drugs, they found something that LOOKED like meth, but they have not gotten the results from the lab. Of course it could be, but it is sad to see the stations reporting "it is confirmed they found marijuana and meth" without knowing for sure.
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murbot
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2008-03-25, 19:37

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Campbell View Post
... and my campaign for co-sleeping continues...
Fuck off, MacGeek.
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thegeriatric
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2008-03-25, 19:37

Very sad. My thoughts are with the parents.
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turtle
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2008-03-25, 19:39

Well, I'd really like to say that this could and should be a wake up call to all of us to ensure we have a fire plan in order. Check smoke detectors and CO monitors as well if your house burn any fuel.

Lets use the loss of others as a call to protect and prepare ourselves to prevent such devastation. A smoke detector not having a battery or having a dead one is all too common. The sad part is that if the one upstairs was in proper order, the level of tragedy wouldn't have been as high.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.

Last edited by turtle : 2008-03-25 at 23:54.
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billybobsky
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2008-03-25, 19:43

I'm sorry for the parent's loss...

It shouldn't matter even if they were drug addicts, the children died needlessly, although thankfully in their sleep...
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