Community Joins to Help Family That Nearly Lost Everything

Sunday afternoon, the Fannin family was joined by relatives and friends as they sifted through what is left of their house. Neighbors were coming by all afternoon to see what they could do to help.

"I just hate for this to happen to them I just couldn't imagine that type of loss," said neighbor Albert Martinez.

Martinez lives just a block away from Saturday night's fire. He says the neighborhood has been gathering around the Fannin family in this time of need.

Everyone was over last night and this morning trying to help out just with materials and helping them sift through the stuff, tools and wheel barrels things like that. And lots of people took money over to help them," said Martinez.

Lubbock Fire Marshal's Office says the fire started when a bucket of discarded fireplace ashes reignited on the back porch.

"What I saw on the scene obviously was a lot of chaos," said Red Cross Volunteer Bill Curnow.

The family was at a movie at the time the fire started, but their German Sheppard was at home. Luckily, the fire department was able to rescue them

"The house itself was destroyed, as far as the Red Cross is concerned," said Curnow.

The Red Cross provided the family with immediate emergency assistance. Curnow says he has seen a heartwarming show of support for the family from their neighbors and the community.

"It was wonderful to see the neighbors pull together and support the family in that way. I definitely got the sense of community when I was on the scene. This was a true case of neighbors helping neighbors," said Curnow.

"People were just giving them Walmart cards, Home Depot cards, things like that to help them buy the things that they need for now," said Martinez.

Lubbock Fire Marshal Robert Loveless has some suggestions on how to safely dispose of fireplace ashes. He says to leave the ashes in the fireplace for at least 24 hours and when you do dispose of them, put them in a metal bucket away from flammable material.