A West Virginia father and his four children were killed in a devastating house fire over the weekend — leaving the children’s mother and a surviving daughter “with nothing.”
Hunter Campbell, 28, died early Saturday in a fire at his Hardy County home along with his four children between the ages of 1 and 5, according to the News & Observer.
First responders were notified of the fire around 5 a.m. local time, the West Virginia State Fire Marshall said.
“[One] The adult woman was able to escape the fire and was taken to a local medical facility,” the statement added.
“The cause of the fire will be ruled undetermined due to the amount of severe damage to the structure. No smoke alarms were found among the debris,” the post explained.
Hunter Campbell, 28, and his four children between the ages of 1 and 5 were killed in the blazer early Saturday. Candi Ann/Facebook
The bodies of the father and four children were sent to the West Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy, officials said.
Campbell’s fiancee, Candi Strawderman, survived the fire, her friend said in a Facebook post.
In addition to Campbell, Strawderman is also grieving the loss of his two stepchildren and the son he shared, the friend explained.
Candi Strawderman (left) survived the fire. Hunter Campbell/Facebook
Strawderman and his daughter, who also survived the fire, now “have nothing.”
It’s unclear whether Strawderman’s surviving daughter was home at the time of the fire.
As of Tuesday afternoon, a GoFundMe for Strawderman and her daughter had raised more than $60,000 of its $65,000 goal.
A second fundraiser for the mother of Strawderman’s stepdaughter also raised more than $16,000 of her $25,000 goal.
The main damage to the home where Campbell and the children died was in the living room area, where investigators found the remains of the space heater, Deputy State Fire Marshal Jason Baltic told MetroNews Monday.
The family home did not have a working smoke detector, officials said. Hunter Campbell/Facebook
But officials could not determine whether the space heater started the fire due to the extent of the damage, Baltic told the outlet.
“Everything in the living room was completely destroyed. There is nothing left there, the floor and everything, everything is gone,” he lamented.
The main issue, Baltic underlines, is the lack of smoke alarms in homes.
“That was a big, big way to prevent this from happening. Countless lives were lost because there were no smoke detectors, no smoke alarms,” he said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
