Fire destroys home, displaces 10

CLEARWATER - A Bay Area family of 10 has been left without a home just weeks before the holidays.

The Warner family stood outside watching as their house went up in flames. Minutes earlier they tried containing the fire before it erupted.

“We ran out the front door, grabbed some stuff. My husband went back in to try and put it out and he couldn’t put it out. So we just started throwing our clothes that we could salvage out of the house,” said Glendah Warner.

Only a few bins of clothes were pulled out. That was Saturday night. Today, everyone including the 8 children is cramped up in Glendah’s mother-in-law’s two bedroom apartment in Clearwater. Half of them are sleeping in the living room, the other half in a small guest room.

“I’m not trying to think about what’s happened right now because it’s too depressing to even think about it because I have to be strong for my kids. I don’t want to break down in front of my kids,” said Glendah.

The family says the fire started in a bedroom and quickly spread.

Most everything inside was destroyed including all of the Christmas presents.

“They wanted a game console system and stuff like that. But that’s what they wanted for Christmas and we tried to get it for them and it just didn’t work out how we thought it would,” said Glendah.

“No, I don’t care to have Christmas presents. Our house, our clothes burned up. All of our stuff is gone,” said Jashaun Dias. He’s one of 8 children in the family. But there is one thing that stood the heat of the fire, a photograph taken last year. It’s the only picture with the entire family.

The family did not have renters insurance. The Red Cross is helping them with food and clothes.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.