SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A household consisting of two adults and five children are displaced after a fire destroyed their home in Suffolk. The incident occurred Saturday night in the 100 block of North 9th Street.
In a video sent to 10 On Your Side, the house is shown visibly engulfed in smoke.
The next door neighbor, Ruby Scott, said she was in bed Saturday night when two of the children knocked at her front door. They asked her to call 911 as their house was on fire.
Scott’s grandson, Angelo Madison, ran into the burning building to assist in getting a disabled grandmother and the rest of the children out of the house.
“It made me feel good that he was able to get them out because if he had not, it would have been a tragedy,” said Scott.
Scott added the fire was so intense it affected her house.
“We could hear our windows cracking from the fire. It was so intense. The windows were cracking and blew out. Two of our windows outside got broken,” said Scott.
Suffolk Fire & Rescue (SFR) was present at the scene for over four hours.
SFR said the initial attack hose line kept the fire from spreading to the neighboring homes while additional hose lines suppressed the fire.
The fire was venting from the side and rear of the structure, per a press release. The back of the house had the most damage with melted shoes and siding. A washer and dryer were unearthed in a pile in the backyard.
A sign on the door currently reads that the structure is unfit for habitation and its use or occupancy has been prohibited by the Fire Marshal.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
A woman who lives at the home damaged by the fire told WAVY the five children displaced are nine months, three, six, seven and 11 years old.
If you are interested in helping the family, a GoFundMe can be found here.