BRADENTON (WSNN) – A living nightmare. A ferocious fire in a Bradenton home leaves a family on the streets and a young man with serious burns.
“We lost everything,” Maria Feliz Valle said in Spanish. “Everything.”
This is the street where this family lost their Bradenton home to a fire last Sunday, losing 21 years of hard work and sacrifice.
“I was eating dinner in the back with my daughter when we heard the explosion, we felt a crash, and then parts of the house began to blow up,” Valle said.
At first, they thought it was a car crashing into their house.
“I thought that some car had run off the road and got into my home,” Valle said. “When my daughter ran out and started screaming ‘Oh my god! Oh my god! My brother,’ I thought, a car killed him.”
Valle says, after the explosion, in a matter of seconds, the flames began to consume everything inside the house. The roof collapsed, and both her son and nephew were trapped.
“He was screaming in pain from his burns,” Valle said.
But thanks to her nephew Alexis, her 29-year-old son, Julio Cesar, was able to get out alive. And even though 65-percent of his body has serious burns, the Urieta-Valle family feels grateful today.
“It’s difficult to see that,” another affected family member, Teofilo Urieta said. “It is difficult for anyone, especially when it comes to your family. When you see someone burning from your family who you care about, who you appreciate.
This family is completely devastated, with no house, no cars, full of worries, trying to save something among the debris that the fire didn’t take. But, if someone wants to help, they have a GoFundMe page.
The fire is still under investigation, so the family cannot enter the house yet. From here, they pray for their son’s health and thank those who have extended their hand.