YOSEMITE, Ky. (LEX 18) — Four people died after a house fire in Casey County at the intersection of Highway 70 and 837 about 11 miles outside of Liberty. Kentucky State Police released that the victims were 29-year-old Ariel Gordon, 39-year-old Thomas Moss, and two children. Ariel's mom, Grace Gordon, shared the two kids are her grandchildren — Sebastian and Lillie.
Grace says, "Everybody in this county loves me and them kids and Ariel. Everybody did, I don’t think there anybody anywhere that didn’t."
The fire started just around 3:30 p.m. Thursday. The Southeast Casey Fire Department is right next door. The chief explained that crews from around the area came to assist. He says it took around 50,000 gallons of water to fight the flames. He says no one on the crew can recall a loss in this community like this one.
Chief Billy Duncan says, "Our fire department, our fire members that came and assisted us they are all here, we're all thinking about you, it's trying times so we're gonna have a post debriefing tomorrow sometime, the times not set on that yet, for all the firemen involved to help...with it being such a tragic event."
Kentucky State Police and other agencies are continuing to investigate. Many have reached out on social media, sharing condolences and support for the family. The coroner explains that it's a reflection of just how tight-knit this community is.
Casey County Coroner Michael W. Brown says, "It's just affected everyone. You know, with it being children involved especially. But we've all come together, all helping one another, checking on one another, and multiple calls, multiple texts today, different people just sharing their condolences and praying for the first responders and everybody involved."
Grace shares that this home has been in the community for around 120 years. She says she and her family shared some good memories here. She wants people to know that she still finds strength in her faith.
She says, "Somebody had said, ‘well you know, God has forsaken you.' no he didn’t, no he didn’t."
Grace wants the community to know how grateful she is for how they've shown up.
She says, "Losing them, I just lost me. They’ve asked me 'well what do you think you’ll do?' I don’t know. I’m not even that far along yet. I just want to feel like it was a dream, you know, that I’m gonna wake up from."
