‘Everyone was screaming, gasping for air,’ says Fort Worth mom of family trapped in fire
Vanessa Williams woke up early Thursday to her granny screaming, “Call 911! Call 911!”
Within seconds, the 29-year-old Williams’ world turned into chaos with cries throughout their home on Rodeo Street in southeast Fort Worth along with smoke and flames.
“I asked Granny about my son, and she didn’t know,” Williams said Friday morning in a telephone interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “We all had made to a back patio door, but my 13-year-old son was nowhere around.”
Williams raced through the smoke that filled the home and found her 13-year-old still asleep in his bed, waking him up in seconds.
The two raced back to the patio door, which was locked. Williams, five children and her grandmother ended up trapped at the door because they didn’t have the key to get out.
“Everyone was screaming and gasping for air through the bars on the patio door,” Williams said. “Firefighters had to pry the bars open.”
All seven family members were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and survived.
Fort Worth fire officials noted that residents should have two ways to escape from a home in case one route is blocked by fire.
Firefighters responded to the blaze just before 4 a.m. Thursday in the 2600 block of Rodeo Street.
When they arrived, firefighters found heavy fire coming out of the front of the home. Crews also were told that several people were still trapped inside of the residence.
Williams said her three children, ages 13, 8 and 2, and her 72-year-old grandmother were asleep early Thursday. Her two nephews, ages 2 and 11 months who she was babysitting, also were asleep.
.jpg "Jan. 27, 2022 fw fire house (pb).jpg")
Her grandparents had lived in the house on Rodeo Street for more than 30 years. Her grandfather died a few years ago.
Williams’ grandmother was the one who was awakened by the fire, which Williams say may have started in the kitchen.
“As far as I know, nothing was left on overnight,” Williams said.
The fire department is still investigating the cause of the fire, which caused major damage to the house.
William said she didn’t see smoke or fire when she called 911.
“When my granny yelled at me to call 911 and there was a fire, that’s what I did,” Williams said.
Seconds later, Williams said she could smell the smoke and that’s when the family started to the back of the home because the fire was in the front of the house.
Williams said the family was trapped at the back of the house because the key to open the patio door with bars on it was on a microwave in the kitchen, which was already engulfed in flames.
“If my granny had slept a little long, if the firefighters took a minute longer, not only would the house be destroyed, but so would our lives,” Williams said.
Williams said she and her three kids are staying at a local motel while her grandmother is staying with her mother in Fort Worth.
Williams has established a GoFundMe account to help her family.
“We lost everything,” Williams wrote on the account. “That house was built and managed by my late grandfather, so to watch everything he worked for, everything my granny worked for up in flames has been a mental disaster in itself.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2022 at 12:03 PM.
