One person dies in house fire in Lawrence County
NEW CASTLE (KDKA) - A New Castle community is in mourning after a fire left a man dead and a family displaced just before the new year.
Destiny Smith is numb after losing her uncle, Melvin Jackson, known by many as Chops.
"I don't believe this happened, I just don't know," Smith said. "It was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life."
Smoke billowed out of her home on Marshall by Stanton around 9:15 p.m. Friday.
Fire Chief Mike Kobbe said when they arrived, they found heavy fire on the first floor that had just spread to the second and into the roof. They got it under control in about 45 minutes after facing challenges with finding the fire and dealing with severed power lines.
"Unfortunately, one male victim did succumb to what appears to be smoke inhalation," Kobbe said.
Smith and Jackson were two of six people who lived in the house, but only Jackson and one of his nephews, who lives in the basement, were there at the time. That nephew escaped and, with other relatives, tried to save Jackson.
"I was just in action, just ran. I didn't care, I just ran," Smith said.
Donald McFall is Jackson's brother-in-law.
"My son was crying, and he said, 'Uncle Chops was in there, and he couldn't get him out,'" McFall said.
He and the rest of the family are in shock.
"He was just an all-around good guy. We all loved him," McFall said.
Dasianae Florence is Smith's daughter and Jackson's great-niece.
"It still is very hard to process and even understand like that that's how he had to pass away," Florence said.
What makes it that much more difficult is the family lost three other loved ones in a fire around the same time two years ago.
"To go through the whole, you know, the same thing all over again, it's just it's like twice as painful," Florence said.
Jackson had special needs and spent 50 years working at Lark Enterprises, a non-profit that gives people like him the chance to work.
"He got so many certificates and stuff all over my house and in the room," Smith said.
"He was probably the happiest man I knew to wake up in the morning and go to work," Florence said.
Joyful, that's how they'll remember him, as they try to heal one day at a time.
"Just need all the prayers and all the help that I can get for my family," McFall said. "Because they don't have anything."
The American Red Cross is assisting the family. A fundraiser has also been created to support them as well.
A cause remains under investigation.
