Man risks life to save wife after house caught fire in Gastonia
A Gastonia man risked his own life to save his wife when their home caught fire.
Firefighters said the Clarks were seconds from death, but they are now in intensive care at the Baptist Burn Center in Winston-Salem. Channel 9′s Ken Lemon learned Ella Clark, 72, and Charles Clark, 73, are in stable condition, but the husband who used his body as a shield for his wife isn’t recovering as fast.
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Ella and Charles pledged to love each other for better or for worse 36 years ago, and it was a promise kept Saturday morning when they woke to fire in their home on Green Circle.
“He was laying over the top of her like he was trying to save her because I guess he didn’t think that nobody was going to come and save them,” said Lynn Campbell, Ella’s daughter.
She said her stepfather made a courageous decision.
Neighbor Albert Bittle told Lemon that he saw the smoke across the street.
“I took off running to the house, and I knocked on the side of the building,” Bittle said.
When no one answered, he called 911, and that early call for help made a world of difference.
“We are talking seconds in life or death there,” said Battalion Chief Dustin Rudisill with the Gastonia Fire Department. “Those folks wouldn’t be alive today if we wouldn’t have done our job efficiently and effectively.”
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Rudisill led the rescue from outside as firefighters battled zero visibility and flames inside. He said they did amazing work finding the couple in their bedroom.
The couple’s four dogs and almost all of their nine cats died in the fire. Ella is awake now and asking about them, but her family is hesitant to answer.
“She keeps on asking about her animals, but we can’t say. I don’t want to devastate her right now,” Campbell said.
Family members hope to keep Ella’s spirits hopeful because they need her to help her husband, her hero. They said the couple survived together and want them to leave the hospital together.
“Let her see him and maybe talk to him and maybe get him to kindly see if he can come awake better,” Campbell said.
Firefighters said the fire was accidental. It started in the kitchen and damaged almost every room in the house.
On Wednesday, a family member told Channel 9 the couple has been moved to Charlotte and are doing well. Lynn Campbell has set up a GoFundMe for the family that can be found here.
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