Liverpool family reflects on fire that took their home
/ Tom Eschen
LIVERPOOL -- Less than 24 hours after their house was destroyed by fire, a Liverpool family spoke on Thursday night about the tense and chaotic moments as they tried to get out of their home.
Jennifer Kazlman, her partner Kendra, her son Edward Lamar and daughter Ivie Lamar were all in the home when the fire started. Kazlman happened to be in the bathroom with her daughter Ivie when she smelled smoke, and found it billowing and spreading throughout the house.
"Black smoke, it was thick, black smoke that just engulfed the whole house," Kazlman says. "It was...it was...it was horrible, it just happened so quick."
Kendra was on the first floor of the house, so she was able to escape quickly, but Ivie, Edward and Jennifer were trapped upstairs, staying near the window to get air. Ivie, 13, was worried about her mother and brother's asthma, and in an act of selflessness, tried to make them get out of the house first.
"I didn't want to go out first," Ivie says. "I wanted them to go out first because they have asthma, bad asthma, I wanted to go out last."
Ivie tried to go back into her room to get their pet Chihuahua, which was stuck inside, but her brother knew it was too late.
"He was worried about us," Jennifer says. "He was like are you coming are you coming...I was so proud of him."
Ivie's eyes teared up as she said the dog did not make it through the flames, but the family is still forever grateful to their neighbors, who happened to take their dog out for a walk, and heard the fire alarm ringing across the street. The neighbor saw them struggling by the the second floor window, and quickly grabbed a ladder to reach the second story.
"I was so grateful for him to come over," Jennifer says. "I mean the mother instinct in me is if he didn't come over, I would've thrown them out the window...I would've."
The neighbors say they're looking into ways to help the family, which actually has nine members without a place to sleep after the fire.
Click to hear from the American Red Cross and other neighbors on the blaze
