‘We appreciate everything’: Chromebook battery caused NN house fire, foundation raises $4K
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — A devoted mom is getting help from the Newport News community after her home caught fire.
Around 6 p.m. Dec. 9, the Newport News Fire Department was called to the 700 block of 21st Street.
Newport News Chief Fire Marshal Jeff Senter confirmed to 10 On Your Side that the fire started in a bedroom and spread to the house next door. Senter said the fire is classified as “unintentional and the cause of the fire is a malfunction in an electronic device (laptop charging cable and battery).”
Nearly one month later, Shaniqua Hairston returned to the house for the first time since the fire. Her home and the home next door are unlivable.
“We were in this house for seven years,” Hairston said. “We went from having nothing. When we first moved here, we were homeless. We were staying in hotels. My kids went from kindergarten to eighth grade in this house.”
Hairston said the fire started in her 13-year-old son’s room, when his Newport News Public Schools-issued Chromebook charger caught fire. Thankfully, no one was home at the time.
“My son left about 3:45 p.m. and I left about 4 or 4:30 p.m.,” she said. “Then around 6:04 p.m., I got a phone call from a neighbor saying, ‘your house is on fire. I Facetimed him and I saw the flames coming out the bathroom window.”
The family of four lost everything right before the holidays and New Year.
“I did not want my house to catch on fire,” Hairston said. “My son lost everything. [We have] no clothes, no shoes, no games. [We had] so many memories in there good and bad. It was just a messed-up situation.”
After hearing the news and seeing Hairston’s TikTok video, her mother’s fitness coach, Quette Brown-Fletcher, stepped in.
“Ms. B is such a breath of fresh air,” Brown-Fletcher said. “She didn’t have a pity party. She didn’t ask for anything. The only thing she said was ‘I may be quieter in the session.’ When you have somebody with that type of humility, you can’t do anything but lean in. I’m a parent and I can’t imagine losing my home, let alone, for my children to have to go through things. As a mom, you’ll do what’s necessary. She trusted God and God leaned in right on time.”
Quette Brown-Fletcher, who is known as Coach Q, founded the BreatheEZ foundation to support caretakers and encourage others to become an organ donor.
“Ms. Beverly was definitely there to take care of her daughter, so we wanted to take care of her,” said Brown-Fletcher.
Brown-Fletcher donated $1,500 from her nonprofit organization with a goal of raising $5,000.
“Five representing grace,” she said.
The fitness content creator shared the goal on her Facebook page and her nearly one million followers.
In a little over four days, Coach Q raised $4,000.
“[Hairston’s] not my daughter, but I’m old enough to be her mom,” Brown-Fletcher said. “I told her if she needs anything, we’re here. We’re a vibe tribe.”
Previous: Local woman creates nonprofit to promote organ donation education
In 2018, her husband Derek Fletcher received a double lung transplant a decade after surviving a kitchen fire. He lived for 15 years with pair of lungs. In February 2023, he died of complications.
“When you’ve been stripped of what appears to be your normal, your stability, it is the same emotion behind it,” she said. “I lost my husband, who was one of the founders of the foundation. It was near the holidays and with his birthday on Dec. 22. I said, ‘I want to do something to represent him and his legacy.'”
Hairston and her kids were able to get through the holidays while staying with a cousin.
“We appreciate everything,” Hairston said. “We did not think we were going to have a Christmas at all, but people really came through and helped with the kids. Thank you Coach Q, Huntington and Crittenden Middle School. This was all made possible by God and my mom. She is a God-fearing woman.”
Hairston said she did not have renter’s insurance. She plans to use the money donated to pay the deposit and rent on their new apartment.
“Now it’s time for a new beginning,” she said.
The family is hopeful they can move into their new apartment in the next three to four weeks.
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