Community gathers on Christmas Eve to support family after deadly house fire

SPRINGFIELD — On Christmas Eve, people made sure a family who lost everything in a deadly fire knew that they had support.

As previously reported by News Center 7, an 8-year-old boy died after a fire on Broadway Street in Springfield at 11 a.m. on Dec. 15. His three siblings and mother were hurt.

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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, the community gathered in Clark County to show love and support to the family.

>>PHOTOS: Community gathers on Christmas Eve to support family after deadly house fire

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News Center 7’s Taylor Robertson says the family is staying at an Airbnb to help relieve some stress from not having a place to live.

People met at the house tonight to show love for the family.

They sang Christmas Carols as the night started with a horse and carriage ride.

“Oftentimes, Clark County gets a bad reputation, and all you hear about is what we don’t get right,” said Ryan Ray, Life Untethered. “This is one of those things we do get right.”

He heard about the deadly fire and started reaching out to everyone he knew to help.

Ray told Robertson that the family’s biggest need would be reliable transportation. So, he called his friend Chris Thompson at Drive One Car and Truck.

“He said I really would like to be able to give him a vehicle. (Ray) said, ‘I think we can do something really awesome here,’” said Thompson. “And so, we started looking into what we could do, and we found a vehicle that we had that was really low miles, was everything kind of it.”

They also got help from Grismer Tire.

“They’re going to actually provide them the first two years of maintenance for free,” said Thompson.

Andy Grimm is a local photographer. He told Robertson that he was most excited to capture smiles on the family’s faces as they realized something.

“How the community feels about them and how many people gave up their time and Christmas Eve with their families to kind of come and be with them, to help them grieve,” he said.

Robertson said that the surprises did not stop there.

When the family got back from their carriage ride, they for a $40,000 check.

“I picked up a $5,000k check, and we saw a $4 donation come through, and to me, those are equal,” said Ray.

He said this is all thanks to the people of Springfield.

Several of the firefighters who rescued kids in the fire were in attendance on Wednesday night.

Robertson spoke with one of the firefighters. He said that he is doing okay.

Several people walked up to them and thanked them for what they do.

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