NEW ORLEANS — At-home fireworks are illegal in Southeast Louisiana, but they’ve lit up the skies all over for days surrounding New Year’s Eve.
Now, they’re being blamed for a fire that destroyed a woman’s home and truck in Hollygrove.
Laverne Pinkney has lived in the same home in Hollygrove for more than 50 years. But New Year’s Eve left her without a home, and nearly speechless.
“Take a look at my house, and look at me,” she said through tears Friday. “I’m homeless. I’m just literally homeless right now.”
Thursday night, her birthday, she was getting ready for bed when she said illegal neighborhood fireworks ignited a truck in her driveway.
A neighbor across the street noticed the smoke and began trying to get Pinkney’s attention. Pinkney, who is recovering from surgery, and another woman inside, who is pregnant, got out of the house without injury.
The flames soon spread to the side of her house and to the attic before fire crews arrived.
“That’s when the first explosion happened. The first happened when I was in the back, the second happened when I was on the stairs. And the third happened when I was across the street, by my neighbor,” she said.
Pinkney’s son, Torri Pinkney, was driving nearby when he saw smoke and knew something was wrong.
“I’m just thankful and grateful for everybody who called my mother, banged on the door, and told her the house was on fire. Because instead of talking about, you know, fixing up a house, it could have been planning a funeral,” he said.
But returning to the mess New Year’s Day was emotional. Ms. Pinkney isn’t sure what she’ll do next.
“I have sarcoidosis and MS and I don’t know where I’m going to go,” she said, crying. “I don’t know how this is going to get fixed. I couldn’t pay homeowner’s because I’m on social security.”
The investigation into the fire is just beginning.
But as the sun set on the first day of 2021, the fireworks around Pinkney’s home didn’t let up. They boomed into the evening, as she sit on her porch in tears.
“You know, about the fireworks, people don’t realize,” she said. “I haven’t a clue as to which way to go now. I never thought that this would happen to me.”
Pinkney is getting some help from family, but they are also asking for help from the community through a GoFundMe.
