Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Community pulls together to help family devastated by fire on Christmas Eve

by Larry Seward / KHOU 11 News

khou.com

Posted on December 25, 2011 at 5:27 AM

Updated today at 5:27 AM

SPLENDORA - A family dog saved four people inside a burning home in Splendora. Now, the pet is missing and everything the family owns is gone.

However, people are doing something special to help minimize the family?s loss. Their home, built by hand in Splendora?s woods, stood for decades. Its doors opened to most anyone with need.

Its caretaker just led her third community food drive. So, when the Hendrix?s haven burned to ruins Saturday morning, people came to cry and more.

?When you care that deeply about someone, it hurts you too,? said Keith King, a friend of the family. ?It gets you in your heart. You just want to do what you can to help them. I?m 55 years old and I?m not ashamed to say it?s very emotional for me.?

?Somebody this special is not supposed to have this kind of bad stuff happen to them,? said Tony Sever, who knows Jamie Hendrix through Cub Scouts where both are den leaders.

Between 1 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. fire erupted in the Hendrix home. The family?s dog named Jackson went crazy barking. It woke Jamie Hendrix and her three children.

?I got out the door on the porch and then the breaker box was exploding right behind me,? Hendrix said. ?I didn?t know if I was going to be able to save my car behind me. (The flames) were right behind me.?

It destroyed practically everything they own, including Christmas gifts. For now, Christopher, 8, and Bryan Hendrix, 11, need shoes, shirts and pants. Carley, 15, needs the same. So does Jamie and her mother Stacey who also lived in the same house.

However, people who know Jamie through her job driving a school bus and through all the good she and her family have done in Splendora. Students at the high school organized a drive collecting clothes and money Saturday evening.

Others, like King, went to the Hendrix house also looking to help.

?We want to come together to help these people because that?s what life is about,? King said.

Investigators did not identify the fire?s cause. The family believes it started in the washing room.

Source: http://www.khou.com/news/local/Community-pulls-together-to-help-family-devastated-by-fire-on-Christmas-Eve-136201808.html

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