LOUISVILLE, Ky. — As people across Louisville looked to stay warm Sunday, one family was saying goodbye to their home of 70 years, after a devastating house fire this week near Valley Station.
Those who lived in the home, three elderly siblings, said it happened Tuesday off Scotts Gap Road.
"Hopefully we'll have a place to stay soon," Garney Snawder, one of the three siblings, said.
Still ripe with the smell of billowing smoke five days after the fire, family of the Snawder siblings say their worried because it's all the three have ever known.
"[They're scared] because this is where they know," Christina Stanford, the siblings'' great niece said. "They never left this land, never."
The land has been in the Snawder family since the 1950s, including the lime green cinderblock home, now covered in scorch marks and without a roof.
"We barley made it out because of the smoke and the heat and the fire," Snawder said.
Snawder described the moments he and his brother Donnie, both in their seventies, helped their younger sister, Gloria, escape.
"The fire started on the couch. Then I started to call out for [my brother and sister] to get out as fast as they could," Snawder said. "I knew we were in danger."
Snawder said he and Donnie suffered minor burn injuries during the incident.
"When the fire started they [were] barefooted," Stanford said. "No shoes on their feet. No jackets."
Standford said the fire started because of an electrical wiring mishap, leaving the family with nothing.
"This is all they have left. Really sad," Stanford said, looking down inside the house at heaps of synched belongings.
She said her great uncles and aunt don't have insurance, making rebuilding on their family land close to impossible without community support.
"Yeah. I want to keep this land. And try to find some place to live on it. I don't know what it's going to be yet," Snawder said.
"They always thought they was gonna' die on this land," Stanford said. "Cause that's what they want and that's what they're afraid [of]. You know, they're afraid that they're not gonna' be here."
She said she is pleading for neighbors to help however they can.
"Anything, everything. Any and everything. Windows, electrical, whatever. You know, I just want them to have the home back, you know," Stanford said.
The Snawder family is accepting donations online, which you can find here.
The family is also accepting at the following address: 13801 Scotts Gap Road.
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