Community coming together to help kids who lost parents in house fire
HUGHES SPRINGS, TX (KLTV) - An East Texas community is rallying around three children who lost their parents in a weekend house fire.
At 1:30 Sunday morning, fire crews were called to the home in the 600 block of Tower Street in Hughes Springs.
Two girls, ages six and ten, were able to get out of the house, but 41-year old Al Rushing and his wife, 28-year-old Shanice Rushing, were both killed.
It's a day the town won't soon forget.
"There was fire trucks, ambulances, and I didn't know what was going on," the Rushing's neighbor Lisa Skinner said.
A 10-year-old girl, who was visiting at the time, was able to help get a younger girl out of the house, but her parents did not survive. The younger girl's two brothers weren't home during the fire.
Read More: Parents perish in Hughes Springs fire
"I was like 'Oh my gosh, what's going to happen to the kids?" Skinner said.
The children are currently staying with other family members. But the community wanted to do what they could to help the kids. The soccer league they were on has set up donation boxes throughout the town and will be walking around with donation jars during Holiday on First Street.
"Anything for the kids: clothes, toys, blankets, school supplies, anything that they may need," Jessica Walter with Tri-Cities Soccer League said.
"They're like part of our kids, too, you know, we see them all the time at practices and games and just trying to help out as much as we can," she added.
Residents say the community always rallies around those in need...even those they may not know.
"Our community does work together, it just comes together as a family, you know. Our neighbors may not know each other, but when something like this happens, we all know each other," Skinner said.
The donation boxes will be available at the Exxon, Hills, City Hall, Blue Sky, Hughes Springs Hardware and Auto, and Subway in Hughes Springs.
The family has also passed along clothing needs for the children. They are in need of: 3t-4t boys' clothes, size 10 boys shoes, 12 yr old jeans for a boy, 14/16 shirts for a boy, size 4 shoes for a boy, size 6x or 7 clothes for a girl, and size 13 or 1 shoes for a girl.
The soccer league has also set up a Go Fund Me for the Rushing family.
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