One family in northeast Houston is lucky to be alive after their home was destroyed in minutes. The fire broke out at the home on Denning near Sterlingshire around 4:15am.
The heavy winds Monday night had homeowner Bobby Luckey shrugging off noises he might otherwise have checked out. His son, however, was too bothered by what he heard, and that allowed him to save his family's life.
All a father and his two sons can do is stare at their home from across the street. Charred furniture litters the front lawn, and a melted TV and family portrait still hang in a front bedroom.
They're glad about one thing, though. They escaped minutes before the roof collapsed.
"When you see that roof collapse, are you thinking that you could have been in there?" we asked Luckey.
"Yes, I see it a lot of times. Over and over. But that's the thing about it: we made it," he said.
Luckey say he heard a few suspicious noises Monday night, figured it was the hard winds and went back to sleep. His 27-year-old son, who just completed his military service eight weeks ago, had to get up and look around.
"You know how when you touch two electrical wires and they are sparking and stuff? That's what I heard. And I was trying to figure what is that sound," his son, Donald McGary, said.
"I was laying in the bed and wasn't thinking nothing of it and he jumped up and said, 'Hey! It's a fire,' so we ran out," Luckey said.
The fire, which started at the breaker box, had already made its way from one side of the house to the other in the attic.
"Pretty much at that time, I was already screaming. I was like, 'Wake up, get up. We need to get out up now.' You know my military training kicked in so I was like we need to get out of the house now," McGary said.
Luckey says within five minutes of escaping, the entire roof of the home collapsed.
The family has no insurance and aren't quite sure of their next move.
"One day at a time is all I can say," Luckey said.
They were only able to escape with the clothes on their backs. The Red Cross is now trying to see what assistance they can provide the family.
___________________________________________________________
Take ABC13 with you!
Download our free apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry devices
