Woman, toddler escape flames through window

Tears streamed down her still soot-smeared face Thursday, as Jenny Frazier gazed across the road to what used to be her home. Jordan, her adopted 3-year-old daughter, hopped along the ground – sheltered in the oblivion of youth from the aftermath of the tragedy that will haunt the Babbie Community family forever.

It was in the pre-dawn hours of Christmas Day when Frazier said she awoke with a start.

“I believe God woke me up,” Frazier said as she described the small bedroom where she and Jordan were asleep. The family’s three-bedroom house was busting at the seams with holiday guests. Her husband was asleep on the couch, and his daughter, her boyfriend and son were each asleep on the other side of the house.

“We’d been cooking all night, getting ready for Christmas,” Frazier said. “We went to bed around 2 a.m., and I just came awake. When I realized the house was on fire, I tried to go to the door, but there was too much smoke. I realized that I had to get us out the window.”

And with the calmness that Frazier said carried her through the evacuation process, she relayed the series of events that led to the death of her stepdaughter’s boyfriend, Bobby Sorrells.

“I pushed open the window and put Jordan outside,” Frazier said. “And then I climbed out behind her. We ran around to the front, and I started screaming for everyone.”

She said her husband and grandson, Justin, soon joined the survivors outside.

“When we realized that Michelle (her step-daughter) wasn’t out, Justin had to physically hold my husband back to keep him from going in to get his daughter,” she said. “But then, she made it out, but no Bobby.”

And then the tears came again.

“He was going to become part of the family,” Frazier said of the 56-year-old Louisville, Ky., resident. “A guy came up the road, saw the fire and called 911. When the fire trucks got here, it was all engulfed. There was nothing they could do. We lost everything. We even lost the dogs.”

Frazier said that it is believed that faulty wiring in the home’s ceiling started the fire. Thankfully, the family has insurance and a small “hunting camp style” property across the road. It’s a sparsely furnished shelter, but “at least it’s warm,” Frazier said.

Frazier’s husband, stepdaughter and grandson were transported to Andalusia Regional Hospital and treated for smoke inhalation and were released late Thursday afternoon.

Now the family must start the process of rebuilding.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do; how we’re going to go on,” Frazier said.