Item
Texas family without sense of smell escapes house fire
Title (Dublin Core)
Texas family without sense of smell escapes house fire
Description (Dublin Core)
WACO, Texas -- A Texas family suffering the effects of COVID-19 is safe after their home caught fire, and they weren't able to smell the smoke.
Fortunately, a fourth family member, a 17-year-old girl, was able to alert her three relatives and get them to safety.
The one-story home caught fire in Waco Friday morning with four people inside.
Three people at the home where Bianca Rivera lives lost their sense of smell due to the virus and were oblivious to the danger that was consuming the structure. The teen told KWTX-TV she smelled something burning around 2 a.m.
"I started smelling burnt plastic, and that's when I got more alert and ran outside of my room," Rivera told the station. "I couldn't even pass the hallway because it was filled with so much smoke."
"I would just do whatever anyone else would do for their own family," Rivera told KWTX. "I just wanted to get everyone else safe and alive that's all I wanted that's all I wanted was to keep everyone alive. I don't really count myself a hero."
The family members escaped with their lives, but weren't able to save much else. The Red Cross and other relatives are helping the family as they recover from COVID-19 and a destroyed home.
Fortunately, a fourth family member, a 17-year-old girl, was able to alert her three relatives and get them to safety.
The one-story home caught fire in Waco Friday morning with four people inside.
Three people at the home where Bianca Rivera lives lost their sense of smell due to the virus and were oblivious to the danger that was consuming the structure. The teen told KWTX-TV she smelled something burning around 2 a.m.
"I started smelling burnt plastic, and that's when I got more alert and ran outside of my room," Rivera told the station. "I couldn't even pass the hallway because it was filled with so much smoke."
"I would just do whatever anyone else would do for their own family," Rivera told KWTX. "I just wanted to get everyone else safe and alive that's all I wanted that's all I wanted was to keep everyone alive. I don't really count myself a hero."
The family members escaped with their lives, but weren't able to save much else. The Red Cross and other relatives are helping the family as they recover from COVID-19 and a destroyed home.
Date (Dublin Core)
January 16, 2021
Creator (Dublin Core)
ABC7News
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Dana Bell
Event Identifier (Dublin Core)
HST580
Partner (Dublin Core)
Arizona State University
Type (Dublin Core)
Article
Link (Bibliographic Ontology)
Publisher (Dublin Core)
ABC7News
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Home & Family Life
English
Health & Wellness
English
News coverage
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
home
family
daughter
smell
sense
news
Waco
Texas
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
Texas
COVID-19
fire
house fire
recover
Red Cross
smell
Collection (Dublin Core)
Survivor Stories
Linked Data (Dublin Core)
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
04/04/2021
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
09/25/2021
08/02/2022
09/09/2024
Date Created (Dublin Core)
01/16/2021
Item sets
This item was submitted on April 4, 2021 by Dana Bell using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.