Statesville High School junior Labreia Williams’ life changed forever the moment she woke Monday morning.
It was earlier than usual, about 5 a.m., and the blanket on her bed was in flames.
“I was shocked,” said Williams. “I don’t really recall smelling it. I just kind of woke up.”
The 16-year-old Williams said her 5-year-old brother, Jarell, who was sleeping in the same room, rose instinctively before she could move to wake him herself.
The two then ran and banged on their mother’s door.
“I said, ‘There’s a fire in my room,’” Williams said.
The family attempted to fight the fire themselves, but the flames spread too quickly. Williams and her brother were downstairs relaying supplies to douse the fire upstairs when darkness engulfed the house.
“The power went off,” Williams said. “Everything went black. I was scared. I didn’t know what to think.”
Eventually the fire forced the family to flee the house, and firefighters moved in. The upstairs of the house is largely destroyed, and the downstairs was damaged by smoke.
The family has been staying at the Masters Inn on Sullivan Road the last couple days, and Williams said she doesn’t know how long they will be there. She said her brother is too young to understand the long-term consequences of the fire.
“I don’t think he really knows what happened,” Williams said. “The other day he was like, ‘I want to go home, I want to go home,’ and I said, ‘You can’t.’”
Williams said family and friends have kept everything fairly normal this week. Once the fire was put out, Williams’ great-grandparents took her and her brother to their grandparents’ home. The children’s aunt and uncle then came and took the two shopping for clothes and school supplies so they didn’t walk into the classroom empty-handed the next day.
“I’m happy they showed us love and helped us through this,” Williams said. “That day (of the fire) we were still crying and scared and worried.”
Williams said her view of material possessions is a little different now.
“I was thinking about going back to get my phone, and I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to do that,’” Williams said about after she initially left her room Monday. “My family says they’re just material possessions. It’s like I’m starting a new life over.”
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