Pompano Beach brothers left homeless by crashed BSO chopper ask for help
POMPANO BEACH - Two brothers who survived when a BSO Fire Rescue helicopter crashed into their apartment building on August 28th and who tried to help two injured BS0 crew members now say they are in need.
Terran Vandiver and his brother Lorenzo Snell had lived in the apartment with their sister Shadara Carter. The three of them, along with Terran's other two sisters gathered outside the apartment building on Monday along with their attorney Rick Ellsley.
Vandiver and Snell were home when the crash happened.
"The rising of Monday," Vandiver told CBS News Miami's Peter D'Oench. "I was getting ready for work and my little brother had the day off. He was sleeping in the living room."
The BSO chopper crashed into the building at N.E. 10th St. and 1st Ave. near Dixie Highway and north of Atlantic Boulevard after experiencing engine failure, according to authorities.
Vandiver said, "Now, loud noises cause me to have anxiety and I realize how much we want to cling to life and realize that everyday matters and that we might not have been here on August 29th."
Vandiver was allowed to look inside his apartment which was destroyed in the crash after an inferno erupted.
He said, "Our family has been going through a lot. This was a war zone. What we experienced was like a bomb went off. That is how we felt."
While the family received some assistance from the American Red Cross and BSO, they are homeless right now and have been living in a hotel.
Vandiver said, "What we need now is food and clothing and housing. We are starting at point zero."
With assistance from attorney Rick Ellsley, they are appealing for help through an online fundraising website.
He said, "I want to make sure we can keep on living and the message is that miracles can happen. My brother and sisters, we are here because we have purpose and we have breath. We lost a lot of memories in that crash but our mothers raised survivors. We have been through a big struggle but we know how to be strong and how to overcome."
He said they had to deal with some terrible losses before the accident happened.
"Our mother passed and our brother passed," he said.
A 2017 report by Law Enforcement Aviation Consultants said the helicopter should have been replaced by 2022.
The family's attorney said he would address his concerns about the crash at a later date.
Right now, he said, the focus was on getting help for Vandiver and his family.