JAMESTOWN – Patricia Harley is grateful to be alive and able to be with her children, but needs help replacing everything lost in a fire at 202 McKinley Ave. on Monday.
In an exclusive interview with WNYNewsNow, Harley said she most desperately needs baby formula and clothes for her 10-month-old daughter.
“We lost everywhere from socks to couches to my little sister’s best friends ashes to everything,” Harley said. “My biggest need right now would be formula for my 10-month-old, she has a can left. I’ve called WIC, there’s nothing they can do right now. Salvation Army can’t do anything. And (I need) clothes for my kids.”
She said she needs Enfamil Gentlease and infant girl’s clothing sized 9 to 12 months.
“Right now I’m getting assisted by Helping Hands, the Red Cross helps me and that’s really it. They’re not replacing anything I’ve lost,” she said.
Any donations can be brought to Harley’s mother’s home at 313 Prather Ave., she said.
Asked what she would tell the public about the fire, she broke into tears.
“Make sure before you do anything, just make sure that there’s not cigarettes lying around or make sure you hug your kids a little. I do every night. Make sure they know you love them because they can get ripped from you at any moment,” she said. This is her second house fire in the last six years she said.
“They’re not sure what started the actual incident, they just know the first thing that caught on fire was downstairs on the basement people’s porch. That was the first thing that started in flames.”
She said a relative called and told her house was on fire but she thought it was a joke until her downstairs neighbor called.
“Then my downstairs neighbor actually called me and she was like ‘Our house is on fire,’ so I went up there and I saw it and it was on fire and I collapsed on my knees. It was the scariest thing to see,” she said. “Very scary, it’s more scary when you have children. You stay up nights on end wondering if the place your staying at now is going to catch fire and you’re going to lose your kids. It’s so fresh. It happened yesterday. I lost my voice from crying. It’s emotionally heartbreaking.”
She said she is grateful no one died or was injured in the blaze.
“I knew we were all safe and we were all alive and we were all okay. I’m just happy we made it out and we’re all alive.”
She said prayers and donations are appreciated.
“That’s all were really asking for now, right now is if they can donate or something on social media or to pray for our families, we need it more than ever right now. We lost everything.”
There may be some help from her church, but their prayers are already helping in ways they don’t know, she said.
“I’ve been attending First Covenant Church for about a year now,” she said. “Their prayers are being answered more than they know. They know about the actual incident so they’re going to see what they can do.”
