LANGHORNE, PA – The Langhorne community gathers around ruined building to support victims of a local house fire on Saturday morning.
On Saturday the 16, just after 5:20 a.m., a three-story twin-residence house burst into flames. Five people were taken to Saint Mary’s Medical Center in Langhorne, PA, and two more were sent to Jefferson Hospital in the neighboring city of Philadelphia.
Soon after being sent to Saint Mary’s, two victims of the fire were life-flighted to Temple University Hospital. Officials are still unaware of the whereabouts of how the fire started but do know that the fire has caused a lot of destruction.
Victoria Salado, the niece of a resident in the house during this time, started a GoFundMe to support her aunt and is currently working to support the people involved in this tragic event.
“Her home, and everything in it, is completely destroyed,” Salador said. “They are going to have to tear it down and completely rebuild,” Salador soon added.
It is still unknown exactly how the fire began. There was suspicion that it was politically motivated, as previously their campaign poster was set on fire, but officials now believe that the fire began on one side of the house and then spread to the other because of the house’s lack of fire-resistant installation.
“We do not know exactly how it started,” Salador explained. “It is still under investigation, but they have said it started at the neighbors and then the wind caused the fire to spread to her side of the Duplex.”
A neighbor, who prefers to remain anonymous, visited the house and donated to the families affected and described the incident as both horrific and traumatic.
“It was overwhelming, because it was so horrific,” the neighbor said. “You looked at it and you made it your own. You looked at it and you thought oh my god. This could happen to me.”
Salador, along with others who started the GoFundMe, urges anyone who is able to, to donate whatever they can to help these people who as of now have nothing.
“As of right now I have raised 13,000 dollars, and hope to raise more,” Salador said. “I would love to get as much as I can because I am worried her medical bills [are] going to be high, and also that she will be out of work for some time.”
Members of the Langhorne Community have stepped up to donate whatever they could whether that be gift cards, money, clothes, or gifts. The people of Langhorne were brought together to help the families experiencing such a catastrophic event.
“Just the feeling that you had to do something, whatever that was,” said the neighbor, after donating.
The neighbor of this incident said the community gathered around the house to see the destruction and were just distraught by the horrifying reality that killed so many pets and hospitalized so many people.
“It actually brought the community together,” said the neighbor. “People were equally horrified at what happened and they knew that they had to do something, and they did.”
