"It was a fire. I had to get away from the fire! I had to jump through a window. By the grace of God I made it through," said Anthony Ford speaking with ABC13 just hours after he survived the fire that destroyed his grandfather's home, passed down to his father and now to him.
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"This is my family's house. I grew up in this house. My family raised me in this house," he said.
It was just before 2 a.m. Friday when firefighters were called to his Sunnyside home in the 3000 block of Dawson Lane near Scott St. Firefighters say the blaze appears to have started in the garage.
Ford woke up to the roar of fire crackling outside his bedroom door.
"I was in the house asleep and I woke up with flames at the door," he recalled. "I opened the door, flames hit me and knocked me back into the house. I had to run and jump out the window. Saved my life, thank God I made it."
Ford said survival instincts kicked in, and he grabbed what he could in order to break the bedroom window.
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"I grabbed my sheet and stuff I had on the bed," he said. "I used it to bust the window open and I just dove out of there just in the nick of time."
Waking up on New Year's Eve morning with nothing left to his name, his family home destroyed, furniture ruined, Ford says he still has faith and has hope he will overcome.
"You know at the end of the day I can't complain, I'm alive. It could have been way worse."
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help Ford with expenses.
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