CLAY CITY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Sunday morning around 11 a.m., fire crews from around Powell County responded to a house fire on Winchester Road in Clay City. Today, crews are struggling with the loss of a 7-year-old in the home.
Lisa Johnson with the Clay City Fire Department says, "Stanton Fire, Middle Fork, Hargett, worked just like we always do with any other fire but a little bit different because there was a child involved and inside."
Johnson says that when crews arrived, the home on Winchester Road was completely engulfed in flames. She says this call was a particularly difficult situation given that a child was involved.
"When it's a child involved, your whole atmosphere changes. I watched our guys and all the teams' hearts outside their coats as they worked. You just see it and I’ve never seen that because, thank God, we've never had to deal with that before,” says Johnson.
Today, Clay City's community is mourning this loss. Today was also very emotional for neighbors like Brittany Cole, who lives right behind the family's home.
She says, "I was in the kitchen — which the window to the kitchen over our sink is facing the trailer. And I was cooking breakfast and I happened to go over to the sink for a second and that's whenever I seen their trailer on fire."
Cole says after seeing the home and working to help as many kids as she could, today has been tough.
Cole says, "It's really hard. Especially in that moment when you know, as a mother, you want to get that child out, but you can’t. No matter what you do, nothing, nothing's gonna change the fact."
During this tough time, Johnson encourages every family to have a fire plan, because you never know when you'll need to use it.
She explains, "There's a lot you can do, you just have to be able to know what to do and do it quickly."
Now, this community is turning its focus on supporting this family in any way that they can.
