YOUNGSTOWN, Fla. (WMBB)–A Youngstown family is asking for 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 support.
“Just everything is gone and we don’t know what to do,” said William Skinner as he stood in front of what used to be his home.
Skinner lives with his fiance Brittney and their close friend Margot Yerves on Timber Run Road in Youngstown.
Last Friday, Yerves woke up from a nap to their house up in flames.
“So I ran outside to try and get a hose to put out the fire but the hose wouldn’t reach,” Yerves said.
Yerves realized it was too late.
“Watching your life and your things go up in flames, I never felt so helpless and useless in my entire life,” Yerves said.
The home was fully engulfed and their dogs and cats were trapped inside. Yerves said she tried to keep going back into the home to find them but could not breathe or see, despite it being the middle of the day. As she found their pets, she began throwing them outside so they could breathe.
“It wasn’t the loss of the house and it wasn’t the loss of our possessions, it was feeling like they were gonna pull our animals out and they weren’t gonna be alive,” Yerves said.
But luckily, that wasn’t the case. First responders saved the remaining pets from the home. Now, they’re plagued with a different fear.
“So now we’re sitting here trying to make it and survive and do something with our life,” Skinner said.
With nowhere left to turn, Skinner’s fiance has started a GoFundMe. She says they need the basics, like food, pet supplies, and money.
“Essentials, things that you need every day. Things you wouldn’t regularly think that you would need,” said Brittney Venable, Skinner’s fiance.
To donate to the family and to learn how to help, Fundraiser by Lauren Venable : Help save the skinner’s from the fire (gofundme.com)
