NEW ORLEANS — A community is coming together to help a New Orleans family rebuild their home after it was damaged in a fire in the West Riverside neighborhood last Monday.
A grandmother, 87, was trapped inside while flames took over the home near the corner of Constance Street and Cadiz Street. The woman was rescued by a neighbor and a jogger just passing by, and now there's a fundraiser underway to help the family get back home.
Neighbor Scott Gallante noticed the flames around 5:30 a.m. from his window.
“I know the family well and I know there are a number of children living there,” said Gallante speaking with WWLTV’s Paul Dudley. “And I don’t know if my mind did more than just act.”
Gallante wasn’t the only one ready to help. Jogger Christian Burck quickly found out his Monday morning run was anything but routine.
“I saw smoke coming out the window and children in the alley just screaming and crying ‘my grandmother is inside.’”
The kids were ok, but their 87-year-old grandmother was trapped.
Gallante and Burck quickly jumped over the woman’s fence. Eventually, the two men got the woman out of the window by breaking it and using sawhorses and other construction equipment from the next-door neighbor who’s been renovating.
“So, Scott got the sawhorse and the wood set up,” said Burck. “And we built up a little platform and that is eventually how we got her out,” added Gallante.
Firefighters arrived shortly after. The grandmother was remarkably ok.
“I am not a hero. I was just at the right place at the right time,” said Burck. “Firefighters are the real heroes. They need all the support they can get right now.”
The family didn’t have insurance so Gallante started a GoFundMe page and as of Wednesday night, $14,000 had already been raised.
“I just felt this is one of those instances where a New Orleans family that has been here for a long time might lose their ability to stay in the neighborhood,” said Burke. “We got together, the neighbors, and said we need to do something, so they don’t have to sell it.”
The NOFD says the official cause of the fire was a failed heating source.
They say they got to the fire in 5 mins and 36 seconds and add that city-wide furloughs had no impact on their response.
You can find a link to the GoFundMe here.