YOUNGSTOWN, Florida (WMBB) – A Youngstown family seeks help after losing their home in a fire. The family has no insurance and says their house is a total loss. Now three adults and their pets are homeless and in need of assistance.
“Everything is just gone and we don’t know what to do,” said William Skinner as he stood in front of his previous home.
Skinner lives on Timber Run Road in Youngstown with his fiancée Brittney and their close friend Margot Yerves.
Last Friday, Yerves woke up in flames from a nap at her house.
“So I ran outside to try and get a hose to put out the fire, but the hose wouldn’t be enough,” Yerves said.
Yerves realized it was too late.
“When I saw your life and things go up in flames, I’ve never felt so helpless and useless in my entire life,” said Yerves.
The house was completely engulfed and their dogs and cats were trapped in it. Yerves said she kept trying to come back inside to find her but couldn’t breathe or see even though it was the middle of the day. When she found her pets, she threw them outside so they could breathe.
“It wasn’t the loss of the house and it wasn’t the loss of our possessions, it felt like they were pulling our animals out and they weren’t going to be alive,” Yerves said.
But luckily that wasn’t the case. First responders rescued the remaining pets from the house. Now they are plagued by a different fear.
“Now we’re sitting here trying to make it through and survive and do something with our lives,” Skinner said.
Skinner’s fiancé started a GoFundMe. She says they need the basics like food, pet supplies, and money.
“The essentials, things that you need every day. Things you don’t regularly think you would need, ”said Brittney Venable, Skinner’s fiancé.
To donate to the family and learn how to help, Lauren Venable Fundraiser: Save The Skinners From The Fire (gofundme.com)
