Dad, 4 kids die in house fire, leaving mom and daughter with ‘nothing’, friend says
A mother and her daughter lost their whole family in a West Virginia house fire, the woman’s friends said on social media.
A fire erupted in a home in Hardy County at about 5 a.m. on Jan. 6, according to a news release from the West Virginia Office of the State Fire Marshal. Five people were killed: a 28-year-old man and four children between the ages of 1 and 5, officials said.
One woman escaped the home and was sent to the hospital, officials said.
The cause of the fire was not immediately determined because of “severe damage to the structure,” and there were no smoke alarms found in the rubble, according to the fire marshal’s office.
The family was identified by friends of the woman in Facebook posts and a GoFundMe.
The woman who survived, Candi Strawderman, lost her fiance, Hunter, her two children, Grayson and Bucklee, and her two stepchildren, Abilene and Jayce, according to a GoFundMe made for funeral expenses and medical bills. Strawderman’s daughter ALayla survived, according to a post from Tifani Myers, a close friend of the mom.
The fire left the two with “absolutely nothing,” Myers said on Facebook.
“My bestfriend’s whole world just changed and I am trying to do what i can to help her and be there for her too,” Myers wrote in another post.
In addition to monetary donations to help with expenses, Myers also called on those in the community to donate clothes, toys and personal hygiene products for Strawderman and her daughter to get by. The Hardy County Emergency Ambulance Authority also joined in to help the pair by collecting donations, according to a Facebook post.
The bodies of the father and four children were sent to the West Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office for further evaluation, according to officials.
Hardy County is along the Virginia-West Virginia border. It is about 125 miles northwest of Washington, D.C.
Target shooter starts wildfire in national forest, feds say. Now he must pay $180,000
Beloved firefighter among 2 killed when gunman fires on pickup truck, Indiana cops say
Woman shot and set on fire dies, Mississippi cops say. Officials look for suspect
