7 News Belize

Lucky Strike Family Escaped From Burning House
posted (November 10, 2016)
So, while the Belize City Family of Ian Carr grieves his loss, another family from Lucky Strike Village are very fortunate that 2 of their children only received minor injuries in yet another fire. 31 year-old Fabian Carillo and his common-law wife, Stephanie Herbert were at home with their 6 children on Tuesday morning at around 1 p.m. when their 4-bedroom house caught fire with them inside it. They parents were awakened by the sound of their kids crying, and that's when they knew they had to get out immediately.

They did, but Carillo and 2 of the children suffered minor burn injuries. Although their home was destroyed, the family says there is good news in their misfortune. Their entire family gets to work on putting their life back together as one group. Our news team traveled to Lucky Strike today to find out what it took for this family to get out alive. Courtney Weathernburne has the story:

Courtney Weathernburne reporting
Stephanie Herbert is standing where her snack shop once was. She sold fire hearth kotobrute, cinnamon rolls, donuts and among many other treats. They were getting by very well.

But on Tuesday morning, her business place and her home were consumed by an early morning fire.

Stephanie Herbert, Mother of 6
"He said I woke him up and told him the kids were crying but I don't remember that, so when we finally woke up properly we went to the kids room and we saw the room on fire."

Courtney Weatherburne, 7News
"So you all woke up the sound of your kids screaming."

Stephanie Herbert, Mother of 6
"Yes. Exactly"

Herbert's common law husband then rushed into the room to save the kids.

Courtney Weatherburne
"So you went into the room and started to take or pull them out."

Fabian Carrillo, Common law husband
"Yes one by one, take the baby first, then the big ones and the smaller one afterwards."

Courtney Weatherburne
"You were burnt on your legs right?"

Fabian Carrillo
"Yes I was burnt on the bottom of my foot from the rug on the ground and the rest of burns are from the curtains and the wall."

The blaze also seared Herbert's 2 year old son. And her daughter, 10 year old Delsia was burnt to her leg. Herbert says if it wasn't for her kids petrified screams, they would have been burnt alive.

Stephanie Herbert, Mother of 6
"All of us would have ended up dead in that house, everybody, because it was the sound that woke us up, we didn't smell smoke or nothing."

But what caused this humble family home to go up in flames? Herbert has no idea.

Stephanie Herbert, Mother of 6
"I don't k now if it was electrical, the stove was off and the gas tank was off we take it off at night, so it can't be the stove."

But apart from solving the mystery of the fire, Herbert and her family also have to figure out how they will move on from this devastation.

Stephanie Herbert, Mother of 6
"I don't have any idea how to begin or how to start over because kids clothes everything is lost, everything."

Herbert had been living at that house for 9 months. Herbert says all they could do was stand and watch as their house burnt down to the ground because no fire truck or police came to help them. There is no fire station in the village. The fire went out by itself. If you would like to help Herbert and her 6 kids you can call 607-4807.

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