Local mother recalls harrowing escape from burning trailer

Just a day after she escaped her burning mobile home in Rockholds, by jumping out a window, Mary Hambrick sat in the living room of her mother-in-law’s trailer some 30 yards behind the still smoldering rubble and wondered about her future.

Running on an hours worth of sleep, a cigarette in one hand, her hospital admittance band around the other, Hambrick picked up the one thing that was salvaged from the flames: an old VHS tape of the famous Cheech and Chong’s movie “Up in Smoke.”

"That’s the only thing that made it out of that fire," Hambrick said shaking her head, noting the irony.

The events of early Thursday morning started when Hambrick put her 9-year-old son on the bus around 7:05 a.m. She then walked up the driveway to see if she could borrow her mother-in-law’s car to go to the store.

"She was asleep, so I said I’d be back in about an hour," Hambrick said. "I sat down on the couch, then went to the bedroom and laid down for about 10 minutes but was not asleep. That’s the only thing that saved us."

Hambrick’s husband Anthony was also inside at the time and the next thing they knew their home of 12 years was on fire.

"He kept yelling ‘What do we do?’ ‘What do we do?’" Mary Hambrick said. "I said you bust open a window and jump out."
So they did.

Anthony jumped out a smaller window in the back of the home, while Mary tried to go out the front door. When stopped by the heat of the flames, she went through a larger window in the front.

"I had my pajamas on and kind of got stuck in the window," Mary said. "I hung there for a couple of minutes before I fell out on the ground."

"My face was so hot, I had to stick my face down in a bird bath in the front yard."

Initial reports indicate the fire may have been caused by overloaded electrical circuits.

The Hambrick’s have not received an official report concerning the fire but Mary doesn’t understand how an overloaded electrical circuit could have been the cause.

"Nothing was plugged up in there except for the fridge," Mary Hambrick said. "I thought everything was fine. I had replaced the floor, the sinks. And I never smelled anything. No wires burning or anything."

Officials from Rockholds Fire Department have not returned calls from the News Journal seeking comment on the fire.
Soon after help arrived, Mary Hambrick was sent via ambulance to Baptist Regional Medical Center where she was treated for burns and smoke inhalation.

"They didn’t give me a choice to go," she said. "I was puking up black stuff so they made me go."

She was released Thursday evening.

Anthony Hambrick sustained minor cuts, scrapes and some bruised ribs.

The Hambrick’s know a little bit about hard times. Mary said she is a survivor of ovarian cancer and has been through a complete hysterectomy. Her son, T.J., has numerous medical problems and suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, she added.

Mary Hambrick, who makes her living off of breeding and selling fighting gamecocks, said the mobile home was not insured and now they have no place to call home.

"My mother-in-law said my son could stay here," Mary Hambrick said in tears. "But I will have to stay in a tent or something. I don’t know what I’m going to do. But I know my son won’t stay in a tent. I will but he won’t. He just kept saying to me ‘Mom, we’ve lost everything."

Everything except for their family.

"I’m just glad I still have my son and my husband," Mary Hambrick said. "God was on our side."

The family is accepting any contributions to help them make it through this difficult time. Anyone interested donating may call the couple at 521-6509.