Stories of house fires always hit close to home. When I was in middle school, my brother and his friend accidentally set a fire in our house and then left me there with a friend while they went off to student government. They told me it would get smoky, but they put out the fire, so not to worry. No need to call for help. About twenty minutes later the phone line cut out and I couldn’t see across the kitchen through the thick smoke. I tried to wait to see if the smoke detector would go off (likely the batteries had been long dead)…but eventually, I had to run for help. This was before the days of cell phones, so once the line went dead, there was no way to call 911 even if I had wanted to.
Our amazing volunteer fire department came and put the fire out, approximately 30 seconds before it hit the polyurethane on the floors, which would have ignited the whole house. We were so lucky. Ever since, I have been pretty anxious about fire safety. The other night, our smoke detectors went off at 4AM and I realized I hadn’t cleaned them or tested them in a long time. It’s so easy for me to get caught up in life and forget. Then I read a story like this and I run around making sure my extinguishers are accessible, the fire ladders are near the windows and that we’re as prepared as we can be. However, I know all too well that fire is wicked fast, intense, unrelenting, powerful and that all the preparation may not be enough to save my loved ones if we were to be so unlucky.
Poor Destiny, of Independence, Kansas, was one of the very unlucky ones. On Friday morning, September 11, she survived her house fire, but her four children did not. Neither did her mother. And three more children are still in the hospital.
At approximately 6:22 a.m., firefighters and police were called to a home in the 200 block of South Earl Street in Independence, Kansas. First responders learned that there were ten members of one family inside. They began pulling people from the burning home. Five of those ten survived. Five didn’t. SOURCE: KWCH
The family has now given names to those five people.
Johanna Landsaw-Davis.
And four of her grandchildren:
Bane Landsaw-Davis.
Case Landsaw-Davis.
Alahyla Landsaw-Davis.
Renesmae Landsaw-Davis.
Five members of the same family, gone in one morning. SOURCE: KWCH
But the fire didn’t leave the rest of this family unharmed. The additional five members of the family were hospitalized, including Destiny.
Her oldest surviving child was hospitalized in Wichita, while Destiny was receiving treatment in Kansas City.
The family’s fundraiser says three children remain hospitalized.
My heart is breaking for Destiny. Not only is she recovering from a house fire. She’s lost her mother, four of her children and her home. She still has three children receiving hospital care as well.
We don’t yet know what caused the fire. Investigators are still working to determine exactly what happened inside the home that morning. There is no confirmed electrical problem to blame. No confirmed space heater. No confirmed missing smoke detector. No confirmed criminal act.
Right now, what authorities have said is simply that the cause remains under investigation. [SOURCE: KWCH / KANSAS FIRE INVESTIGATION REPORTING]
However, outside, Destiny’s community showed up.
One neighbor, Michelle Blankenship, remembered walking out of her bedroom that morning and seeing what she described as a wall of red outside her windows.
The family’s cousin, Angela Lybarger, says the family has been overwhelmed by the support they’ve received.
As I’m sure you can imagine, even the firefighters who responded are struggling with what happened. That is such a tremendous loss of life for a single house fire. The ripple effect of lives impacted will extend far beyond just this family.
Independence Fire Chief Aaron Cook said the tragedy has left an emotional mark on his department and the community.
But he also pointed to something good happening in the middle of something terrible:
People are showing up for this family. SOURCE: PEOPLE
THE GOOD DEED
A fundraiser has been established for Destiny and her surviving family.
The fundraiser was organized by family member Barbie Landsaw and has been independently reported by KWCH and other news outlets.
The money will help cover funeral expenses for the five people who died, hospital bills for the survivors and any immediate expenses Destiny and her family will face as they try to rebuild their lives.
Because that’s the part of a house fire that doesn’t always make the headline.
The fire goes out. The trucks leave. But the bills don’t and neither does the tidal wave of grief.
Destiny has survived something most of us can’t comprehend. She’s facing her own recovery. She has children still in the hospital. She has funerals to somehow plan. She has a life to rebuild (which I’m sure isn’t even fathomable). And she has to do all of that while grieving four of her children and her mom.
There is no amount of money that makes any of this okay. But maybe we can make sure money there is one less thing this family has to worry about right now.
If you’re able, consider helping Destiny and the Landsaw-Davis family by either donating or sharing their fundraiser.
SOURCE: FAMILY GOFUNDME + KWCH