Newtown family fire: A Newtown family with children who survived the mass shooting three months ago are homeless after a fire burned down their home.
A Connecticut family who survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre were left homeless after a fire burned their home down.
Residents of Newtown, Conn., have rushed to support the family of Hans and Audra Barth after their was destroyed on Wednesday. The Barths’ three children survived the Dec. 14 shooting that left 26 people, including many children, dead.
One of their children, a 7-year-old, was in first-grade teacher Kaitlin Roig’s classroom. Roig hid her 15 students in a classroom, locking the door and putting up a barricade, in the shooting.
The family was not home when the fire raged, but they are now homeless. The News-Times of Danbury reported that the American Red Cross put them in a hotel. And the family dog, a chihuahua named Goliath, as well as several baby birds died in the fire.
“They lost everything. The house is going to have to come down, the fire department told them,” Christine Wilford, a Newtown resident helping the Barths by collecting donations, told the paper.
Barth said the community support has been helpful.
“Although this is a tragedy the support has been so tremendous,” Hans Barth told CBS Local. “We were a half a mile like around the corner, and we didn’t even know it was our house. We couldn’t believe it.”
“Really, the dog is the biggest loss for the children, but they are grateful for the support of the Sandy Hook community,” Barth added.
Bill Halstead, Newtown’s fire chief, told the Hartford Courant, that the whole house was gutted by the fire, and said it started in the basement.
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