Collection for family who lost all in fire
Great Beginnings Gordonton are collecting items for the Thomas family who lost everything to a fire on Friday. Blankets, clothes – girl’s size 1, boy’s size 4, groceries or money are all welcome.
The family were living in a converted shed in Gordonton. The fire broke out just before 5pm on Friday, the Waikato Times reports.
Daniel Thomas ran into the burning house and rescued Addilynn, his 13-month-old daughter.
“I didn’t care about anything else in the house, just one thing,” he said.
Fire investigator Kevin Holmes told the paper he was a hero – “…if it wasn’t for him doing what he did they might have lost that girl.”
Smoke detectors alerted him to the fire, while he was visiting his parents’ home on the same property.
“So I just sprinted as fast as I could to the door. I was going ‘no, no, no’.
“It was just black smoke right down to knee height.”
His wife Courtney was in the other house with their almost-four-year-old twin sons Mason and Landon.
Holmes said while they don’t encourage people to go into burning buildings, he was lucky he got there when he did.
“If they hadn’t’ve had a smoke alarm and he hadn’t’ve heard it, he wouldn’t have known until it was too late.”
To read the original story, click here.
- Clothes, blankets, groceries are being collected by Great Beginnings. To donate, phone 824 3227 or send an email here.
