BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A fire at a home in South Buffalo has sent five people to the hospital and displaced a family of eleven. There were 12 people inside the home at the time of the fire.
Authorities said this fire started at a home on Woodside Avenue around two o'clock Thursday morning.
Crews say there there is extensive damage in the upstairs part of the home; resulting in roughly $150,000 in damage.
According to the family's grandmother, Anita Winsor, ten children were in the home at the time: eight biological children, a step child and one of the children's girlfriend.
A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family.
Winsor and her husband Daniel said they could not believe the house their son and grandchildren live in had caught on fire.
"You hear the fire engines racing down the road and you're always wondering where they're going," said Daniel Windsor."I hope it's not my son's house. Well, last night it was my son's house."
Fortunately, he, his wife and all ten children in the house - including a new born baby brought home from the hospital on Monday - are alive.
Their son was sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation after making sure everyone got out of the house, and we're told he's okay.
Anita Winsor said she believes the cause of the fire is either a hover board, or its battery charger.
"The girls came in and told [their father] that the hover board sparked, he went into their bedroom. By the time he got into it, the blanket caught on fire," she said. "He was trying to put it out but he said it was too late, and he screamed for everybody to get out of the house."
Winsor said the girls are home-schooled so their sleep schedule is different, and that's why they were awake at two in the morning.
"Thank God that, you know, my granddaughter happened to be up because had she not been up they probably all would have perished," she said.
Winsor also said she's grateful to the neighbors who took in five of the children who had to run out of the burning home wearing only their pajamas.
She said her family can't live in the house now because of the extensive damage, but they will spend the holidays together at her house.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
