Pittman Family: Tragic Fire

[NurseNell]

www.agapeleadership.com/pittmanfamily

On the morning of February 23, 2012, the Pittman family--a homeschooling family--suffered a devastating fire in their home. Three of their eight children lost their lives in the fire while the remaining children and the mother are at various hospitals receiving treatments/surgeries. The father was not home at the time of the fire and is beside himself with grief. Stay tuned to your e-mail for futher updates on the family.

A house fire is one of my very real fears. I can't imagine what this family is going through. I know I will say prayers for the survivors.

[meow139]

Oh dear. To serious to be snarked. :cry:

[meow139]

We're they fundies? The pics make them look fairly normal.

[Kitty]

I heard about this in the local news (right now, I'm about 1 hour from Jacksonville). So horrible. :(

[WonderingInWA]

An excerpt from an article on the site:

"This is the second house fire in which the Pittman family has lost their home. A family friend told The Daily News that the Pittmans lost everything they owned about eight years ago to fire."

Wow. These people have been very unfortunate with fire. That's really sad.

[sassyNoz47]

dear god! I have never heard of them but this is so sad.. its the 2nd house fire they have been through? This was mid morning.. everyone was home but dad :(

[gustava]

Remember to check your smoke alarms, folks.

[Visionoyahweh]

That's horrible. I hope they believe in/have insurance.

ETA: I'm suddenly grateful school taught us what do do in a fire from Kindergarten on.

[WonderingInWA]

Remember to check your smoke alarms, folks.

Agreed. You have to wonder why, if it was daytime, the fire overcame them and took 3 lives. Tragic.

[dairyfreelife]

A fire scares me too. There was a fire about a year ago in an apartment complex nearby where I live. No one was hurt, but it's a fear of mine too. What a tragic thing to have to experience not once, but twice. Crazy and horrible. My sincere sympathies to this family.

[Georgiana]

I don't know their religious stance, but THIS is one of my greatest fears in regards to fundies.

This is a horrible tragedy. And I can't help but wonder if ignorance played a hand in this. If this was their second fire, perhaps there were some fire hazards that they were unknowingly creating. And the smoke alarms...where were they?

When I look at some of the QF/ATI families and the unsafe situations, I want to yell at them. I want to tell them that it only takes one time. One of the reasons I oppose this movement is because I do not want children to have to live in unsafe situations because of the choices of their parents.

I just feel in my gut that this could have been prevented, and I feel that it should have been.

But I cannot snark. Because I am truly very sorry that this happened.

[Kitty]

Agreed. You have to wonder why, if it was daytime, the fire overcame them and took 3 lives. Tragic.

Fires can spread very, very quickly. And in house fires, people try to put out the fires themselves before/while calling 911, and that can actually make things worse.

It also depends on the location, and it sounds like the kids who died were trapped in the living room. The kids upstairs had to jump out of the windows... and throw a 4 year old out. That's horrific.

[Kitty]

I don't know their religious stance, but THIS is one of my greatest fears in regards to fundies.

This is a horrible tragedy. And I can't help but wonder if ignorance played a hand in this. If this was their second fire, perhaps there were some fire hazards that they were unknowingly creating. And the smoke alarms...where were they?

When I look at some of the QF/ATI families and the unsafe situations, I want to yell at them. I want to tell them that it only takes one time. One of the reasons I oppose this movement is because I do not want children to have to live in unsafe situations because of the choices of their parents.

I just feel in my gut that this could have been prevented, and I feel that it should have been.

But I cannot snark. Because I am truly very sorry that this happened.

They don't seem particularly fundie to me, but all the news reports say it was an electrical short in the kitchen that caused the fire. that can happen to anyone, not just idiots.

[sassyNoz47]

yes electrical short.. it sounds like the girls were upstairs and the boys down stairs (cept for the 4 yr old boy) a sister went down to try to save the boys wasn't able to. They jumped out of the 2nd floor window and dropped the little one down someone caught him.

[Elle]

My dad was burned in a house fire/explosion when I was young. His wedding ring was melted off his finger. He only lived because his best friend, who was there at the time, hauled my dad out of there, aflame, and then used his own body to put my dad out. Miraculously he suffered no permanent scarring. Thank goodness for liberal doses of Silvedine, but more than than, Scott's heroism and willingness to burn himself to put the flames on my dad's body out without having to think twice about it. Scott suffered severe burning from it, but he did it. In the ER, because of Scott's quick action, my dad was alive, coherent, and didn't want the nurses and doctors to take his charred clothing off because "I'm not wearing any underwear." Scott retold that at my dad's memorial years later, and it was good for a chuckle.

Shit, now I'm crying. I'm glad we have a fire plan in place. All my life we had random fire drills at home, and now that I have my own family, we have fire plans in place, check out alarms often, have a fire extinguisher we check often, have a backup to that, and have no problem running from everything. A few years back the alarms at our apartment went off, not a planned drill, just some dumbass pulling one for fun, but there were massive wildfires nearby, so it wasn't treated like a drill. Hubby quickly grabbed the laptop with all out important documents we'd need to start over saved on it, we grabbed the animals, I grabbed the one material possession I couldn't leave behind (it wasn't my wedding jewelry either, that stayed on the counter), and out we ran. You're less likely to die from being burned alive as you are from the smoke inhalation, and you don't need to see fire to die from it.

I'm not familiar with the Pittmans, but this is awful. My heart goes out to them. I wish I had something to send them.

[sassyNoz47]

when I was a teen it was a hot summer afternoon.. neighbors came to tell us the roof was in flames. We got out before the smoke alarms ever went off... to this day I can never forget that smell.

We lost everything what didn't burn was to badly damaged by smoke to be used again. Thankgod for great insurance, They put us up in a Holiday Inn for 3 mos while we rebuilt.

[browngrl]

What a tragedy.

I worked in a hospital which had a major burn unit. Some of the things I saw - would just break your heart. It taught me this: prepare for fire. We have smoke detectors (which we check to ensure they are working) and a fire extinguisher. Last summer our local fire department had a public service thing where they went door to door to offer advice on fire safety precautions. It was really useful. We made all the changes they suggested. The thing that worries me most about fire is my pets. I am pretty sure my dog would follow us but I fear my cats would just run and hide. I guess the best I can do for my cats is to take every precaution I can to avoid a fire.

[NurseNell]

The thing that worries me most about fire is my pets. I am pretty sure my dog would follow us but I fear my cats would just run and hide. I guess the best I can do for my cats is to take every precaution I can to avoid a fire.

I've heasrd several examples of pets, usually dogs but also at least one cat, waking their master up because of a fire.

[slickcat79]

That's awful :( My best friend works at New Hanover, but isn't involved with the children's hospital.

It makes me think of that lady who built her kids' bunks into a closet. I don't remember who she was, but I think she was a friend of Kim's at LIAS and she showed up here at FJ at one point. Fire can be so devastating...the last thing you want to do is make it harder for rescue workers to find your children.

[Guest Anonymous]

This is so sad and heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family.