An Angelina County family says they’re relieved to be alive after their Hudson home went up in a flames. All that remains are charred framing and ashes.

“A kid staying up to play video games is what saved the family,” Heckeroth said.

And that kid is 13-year-old Jadon Russell who was up late playing video games at his home Friday when he heard a fire alarm. Immediately, he took off his headphones to locate the sound which was coming from his mom and stepdad’s bedroom. By the time he got there part of the mattress his mother was sleeping on was already on fire, alerting him to wake her quickly.

“Whenever I woke her up I thought about like getting the fire extinguisher or getting some water or something so I ran into the kitchen and I was looking for the fire extinguisher and we didn’t have one right so I grabbed something big enough to put water in and I start filling it up halfways and was like it’s not going to work so then I thought let’s get out of the house,” Russell said.

Russell also managed to carry his dog out of their house and notify his brother who could not hear the fire alarm since he was in the middle of his video game. None of the family members were skin burnt however part of his mother’s hair was singed off.

“I mean it was just there was a fire in the house and I was just trying to be safe and get everyone out. It is what anyone would do,” Russell said.

Jadon’s aunt Lori Heckeroth was the first person his mother called for help. Heckeroth says this is just two months after the family started to rent the property. Everything they owned from IDs, to birth certificates, to family photos were all lost in the fire.

“As far as what we could tell and what the fire department could tell it seemed to be some sort of faulty type wiring in the walls. They were also instructed by the landlord to use space heaters which isn’t the best idea in an old house,” Heckeroth said.

And although the devastation lingers, knowing they have each other has brought comfort.

Lori Heckeroth tells us the family has been working with the precious cycle and the American Red Cross to find a new home for the family to live in Hudson. To help the family rebuild, the link to their GoFundMe page is https://www.gofundme.com/f/6mhhq-help-my-sister-start-over .

https://www.ktre.com/2021/11/29/hudson-family-loses-house-pets-fire/