People newspaper reported on February 20, the fire occurred on February 16 at Vista Lake Drive, Sugar Land City, Texas. Tragedy happened in a family of Vietnamese origin when the firefighters discovered 4 members, including grandmother and 3 children, died from the fire. Meanwhile, the mother of three children was found outside the house with burns.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but fire force spokesman Sugar Land Doug Adolph said the family may have used a fireplace to keep warm because Texas had widespread power outages when the blizzard swept through this state over the days.
Historical snowstorms have caused Texas to see record low temperatures for decades, with some dropping to -18 degrees Celsius. Millions of people live in the face of blackouts and dehydration for nearly a week under extreme weather.
“Apparently they were trying to warm up the body. We cannot conclude that was the cause of the fire, we just think they used the heater,” said Adolph, adding that the entire house has been burned.
The three identified victims were Olivia, 11, Edison, 5 years old, and Colette Nguyen, 5 years old.
Two online fundraising sites Gofundme were created to commemorate the three young victims. A page created by the uncle of three ill-fated children to set up a fund to donate to charitable activities and this fund will provide scholarships to students at the school where the three attended.
“Thank you all for your love and support. Our hearts are broken at the moment. However, your kind deeds have given us some comfort to drag us through the pain. We are forever grateful to you all “, their mother, Jackie Pham Nguyen, shared on a GoFundMe.
US President Joe Biden has declared a serious catastrophic situation in Texas when the damage of the blizzard left at least 30 people dead, tens of millions of people in difficult situation. As of yesterday, about 15 million Texans, or half of the state’s population, live in a lack of clean drinking water.
Many people die from fires from heating fires due to inoperable heating systems from power outages or freeze deaths, or from CO poisoning when trying to find ways to combat the cold.