Madison in the Morning

Madison in the Morning

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Fort Atkinson community supports family in grief after fatal house fire

FORT ATKINSON (WKOW) -- While a Fort Atkinson family mourns the loss of a teen and his nephewin a house fire early Saturday morning, their community is doing everything they can to lift some weight off their shoulders.

Carly Salazar's son Jaime is struggling with the loss of his best friend.

"They went to school together, they were in the same class every year from 4k up until high school," Salazar said.

She visited the Palacios-Perez family Sunday to see what they needed and learned what happened.

She says the dad smelled smoke and hopped into action in the middle of the night.

While trying to get people out of the top floor, things went wrong.

"The dad climbed out and asked Bryan to pass him the grandson, or Bryan's nephew," Salazar said. "There was a gulf of flame that scared Bryan so he jumped back and the dad didn't see him after that."

While the loss to the family is immeasurable, neighbors and people around the community are stepping up to help in whatever way they can.

When Salazar saw them as they're staying with family right now,she surprised them with a GoFundMe that people were flooding with donations.

In just a day it had brought in more that $36,000.

"They were not aware of the GoFundMe that I created and they were just overwhelmed with gratitude from everybody that has reached out wanting to help them," she said.

The localSt. Vincent de Paul is also pitching in as a central donationlocation for people to drop off clothes and household items, along with monetary donations.

"When we open on Monday we hope that people come in and get whatever they need," Bill Roberts, president of the local branch, said. "We're here to help them, we're offering our prayers and support for them."

Salazar says every bit helps.

"I know I can never bring their child back but I was hoping that with raising funds and donations of clothing, it'd be something less off their shoulders," she said.

While officials have not named the victims, Salazar says the family wants everyone to know that their son Bryan died a hero trying to save his 4-year-old nephew.

The state fire marshal's office is investigating how the fire started.

More at WKOW 27 News


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