Fire Rescue News - Families whose homes were destroyed by fires during the holidays grateful for support from neighbors

More Photos

By LEE PROCIDA Staff Writer pressofAtlanticCity.com | 0 comments

But the families are also grateful for the overwhelming assistance of their neighbors. On opposite sides of Atlantic County but in equally tight-knit communities, they say they were shocked by the altruism of friends, family and complete strangers.

"It's been unbelievable," Scott Powers said.

"There really aren't words to describe it," Mark Hughes said.

In both cases, donations and promises of aid flooded in while their homes were still practically smoking. Clothes, checks, gift cards and household supplies helped them regain a semblance of normalcy quickly after their holidays were devastated.

The support has gone a long way to replenishing the material objects that were lost, as well as giving the families a newfound appreciation for their neighbors' kindness.

"People were extremely generous," said Melissa Mashura, a friend of the Hughes family who helped organize a donation drive on New Year's Day at the local volunteer fire department. "I know how much they wrote checks for."

"People don't even need to know you. They just hope for the best," Powers said. "It's humbling."

The fire at the Hughes residence started in a downstairs wall, likely from old electrical wiring that ran to an outlet where Christmas lights were plugged in.

Mark Hughes, 29, grew up in the house and eventually bought it from his parents, and he and his wife were raising their 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter there.

When the fire started at about 8:30 p.m., they were eating Christmas Eve dinner with a family directly across the street but in a home obscured behind a thicket of trees.

Estell Manor Volunteer Fire Company Chief Dan Collins was there as well, and Hughes heard the initial 911 call come in over Collins' radio, except it was initially for his other neighbor's address.

Hughes double-checked his property anyway. From the outside, he noticed a few flames on the outside wall, but the inside was already so superheated that he could not even enter.

No one was injured in the fire, but the family chihuahua died inside.

On a recent morning, the Christmas tree inside still stood in the corner of the living room, except it was partially charred and covered in melted plastic ornaments.

What wasn't burned was warped from the intense heat, including a skylight, the television and all the window blinds. They were not able to salvage much, but firefighters did grab photo albums and other keepsakes such as Lisa Hughes' wedding dress.

"They knew what they would want," Mark Hughes said. "It was amazing."

Hughes couldn't remember ever using the outlet that caused the fire, and it was just chance that he decided to use it this year.

At the same time, it was also chance that he decided to put his children's Christmas presents in a shed out back rather than upstairs as he usually did, so the family was still able to exchange gifts the following morning at a neighbor's house.

About 17 miles away, the Powers family was unwrapping presents when their smoke alarm went off.

Scott Powers walked to the stairs to investigate, and made it to only the second step before seeing smoke rolling across the upstairs floor and realizing that it was already too late to try and put the fire out himself.

He called 911 and evacuated his wife and their four children, ages 9, 7, 4 and 1. He was training to be a firefighter at the time, and he donned his emergency gear and assisted the dozens of other firefighters that responded.

He graduates from the fire academy today.

"That was definitely a quiz," he said.

The fire apparently started from the chimney of the wood stove. Part of the flue was missing, Powers said, unbeknownst to the family after living there since August 2009 and apparently unnoticed by chimney inspectors. The hot smoke eventually cooked the surrounding wooden beams until they caught flame.

The entire house still smelled of smoke on a recent afternoon, while the upstairs is completely blackened. The fire spread from the attic and engulfed all the children's rooms, but fortunately no one was upstairs at the time.

They are now temporarily living in a modular home they moved onto the site while they work with their insurance provider and decide how and when to rebuild. Donated clothes cover their coffee table, much of it children's attire since all their belongings in their rooms were lost.

The township has also been collecting checks and supplies and forwarding them to the family, an effort started by the Elwood Fire Company. Scott Powers said they are trying to use the donations frugally for basic household needs.

"Luckily, we had some advantage because we had all the after-Christmas sales," he said.

Both families said they are comfortable now, but it will be some time before they are able to move back into their homes and get back to the normal lives they had.

But they said the assistance they have received so far has helped them following the initial trauma of the fires and made them hopeful for the future.

In the case of the Hughes family, the outpouring of support actually surpassed their needs so that they have more clothes and supplies than they can keep in the condominium a friend is letting them stay in while they wait to rebuild.

Mark Hughes said they plan to re-donate the surplus materials.

"A lot of good will come out of a bad situation," he said.

Contact Lee Procida: 609-457-8707  LProcida@pressofac.com