Support and sympathy follow fire that killed two children in South Union
Stuffed animals peaked out from behind caution tape Wednesday on the porch steps of a home where two little children died in a fire the day before.
RyLeigh Weasenforth, 7, and her brother Gunner Weasenforth, 5, became trapped in their South Mount Vernon Avenue Extension home when a fire started right outside their bedroom where they were sleeping at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Moments later, family members were on the porch screaming for the children and suffering burns in attempts to rescue them. Soon the porch was packed with firefighters, also attempting to save the children who were trapped out of reach. At least one firefighter suffered burns.
By Tuesday afternoon, the family and first responders had largely dispersed, replaced by bouquets of flowers and balloons on the porch steps. On Wednesday morning, those gifts were replaced by toys in pairs of two: a pink teddy bear alongside a toy car, a pink flamingo snuggled against a green dinosaur, and a unicorn with a rainbow mane nestled against a stuffed puppy.
Also killed in the fire was the children’s puppy, Tank, according to their obituary. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
Snow coated the impromptu memorial Wednesday morning and the wind carried with it the smell of charred wood. A long line of cars filled a driveway where the grandparents of the children live. Wednesday afternoon, the impromptu memorial had tripled in size. Meanwhile, a bus that should have been taking the children home from school made its stops in the area.
As the memorial on the porch grew, a fundraiser set up for the family exceeded its goals several times. As of Wednesday afternoon, $39,500 was raised for the family who lost two of its smallest members. The mother of the children is battling cancer.
“With all the messages, emails, calls and shares on Facebook, with the outpouring of love the community has shown us in this time of need, we want to say from the bottom of our hearts how truly we appreciate all the love,” Shienna Ross, the fundraising organizer, posted on the GoFundMe page Wednesday afternoon.
Donations continued at a steady pace Wednesday, including donors from across the country, those who know the family and some who faced similar personal losses.
The tragedy had a ripple effect on the first responders, who flooded the small town road on Tuesday and flooded social media that night. Some shared pictures of the two children holding hands with concise messages of heartbreak. Others wrote lengthy posts expressing sympathy, heartache and support.
Uniontown Fire Department, which assisted South Union Township Volunteer Fire Co. on the call with other emergency agencies, wrote on its Facebook page they were “heartbroken.”
“Please keep the family in your prayers, as well as the firefighters, police and EMS who responded,” the department wrote.
Others shared reminders to first responders to reach out for help in times of crisis.
“Today was another hard day in Fayette County with multiple young lives being taken away too early,” Adam Burke wrote on the Paramedic Tommy Dailey Memorial Gathering on PTSD page.
Dailey of Connellsville was a longtime paramedic who died by suicide in June. Burke and other local first responders organized an event in his honor in November to spread awareness about PTSD among first responders.
“We not only ask for prayers for the families of the deceased, but also to pray for the first responders who were involved in the events,” the post said. “Remember, no one fights alone.”
Burke said many of those who responded to the call Tuesday contacted him. A crisis team was sent to assist first responders.
He referenced a tearful news interview with South Union Township Volunteer Fire Co. Chief Rick McCormick on the scene Tuesday. He said the interview “shows the humanness that exists behind the mask of strength in first responders.”
“Daily, first responders face tragedies like these. Naturally, the focus is on that of the deceased after such events, but we forget the men and women who responded to that call and the burden that they will now carry after experiencing a traumatic event such as this,” he said.
Burke encouraged first responders to reach out for help and use resources such as the local task force and Chestnut Ridge Counseling Services.
“It’s a changed world, and we don’t want to see them going home carrying this,” he said.
Donations can be made to the Weasenforth family at https://www.gofundme.com/f/young-innocent-lives-lost-in-early-morning-fire.