Volunteers helping family of 12
Within minutes Sunday morning, Spicey Melancon's home of 17 years was destroyed by fire. Melancon, her children, grandchildren and elderly parents -- 12 family members living together -- made it out. Little remains of the eight-bedroom home trailer they had renovated through the years.
"They were just things, they were just things, I got all my family out," Melancon said the morning after the fire.
She said a faulty oxygen-creating machine blew up about 7:30 a.m. Jan. 15 when her father turned it on. "His hair was on fire, the skin was burned off his face," Melancon said.
Fire tore through the residence at 12413 O'Neal Road while the family struggled to escape. Firefighters say a volunteer pulled a person from the burning home as smoke and flames closed in.
Since then, more than a dozen Red Cross volunteers specializing in mass care and disaster health services have been helping the family around-the-clock.
"I don't know what we would have done," Melancon said, repeatedly expressing her thanks to the "strangers" helping her family.
The American Red Cross is providing the family with temporary shelter, food, clothing, shoes, comfort kits and health services.
Some family members have been staying at the Ascension Fire House, a home refurbished by the Leadership Ascension class of 2010-2011 for families who lose their homes to fires.
The Red Cross provides aid as a gift to those in need after a disaster strikes. The charitable organization -- not a government agency -- depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its humanitarian mission.
"People came out of their homes, and gave slippers to my children, the Red Cross, they gathered us food, shelter, they bought me this nightgown," Melancon said.
You can make a difference for our neighbors in need by making a donation today.