A family of six, including four children, is fighting for their lives after a terrifying overnight apartment fire tore through a Mesa, Arizona, complex, leaving dozens displaced and an entire community shaken.
The blaze broke out around 2 a.m. Saturday, January 24, near Dobson and Baseline Roads in Mesa, according to the Mesa Fire and Medical Department. When firefighters and police arrived, they found six residents — two adults and four children — suffering from severe burn injuries.
All six victims were rushed to the burn unit at Valleywise Health Medical Center, local outlet 12 News reported, citing fire officials. One of the children was initially taken to Banner Desert Medical Center before being airlifted to the Phoenix burn center due to the severity of their injuries.
Firefighters launched what the department described as an “aggressive interior fire attack” and searched every unit to ensure no one else was trapped inside. The fire ultimately spread to at least eight apartments, forcing a nearby public high school to open as an evacuation center for roughly 30 residents who were left without homes, according to Fox 10.
The American Red Cross is now assisting displaced residents with emergency housing and relocation.
A GoFundMe organizer said five members of the injured family remain in critical condition and have “lost everything” in the fire.
Amid the devastation, one small act of bravery may have saved lives. John Peshlakai told AZFamily that his 6-year-old granddaughter was the first to wake up and realize something was wrong.
“She woke up first and went to wake up her mommy and daddy, and at that point the whole place was engulfed in flames,” he said. “They’re just a wonderful family… and then tragedy strikes. We just pray that they can pull through this.”
Another resident, Tamra Ashcroft, escaped the fire but lost nearly everything — including her two cats. She described waking to screams she said sounded like something “from the worst nightmares.”
“I got dressed and ran downstairs and saw the family of six next to me, completely burned and trying to get everybody out of the building,” Ashcroft wrote on GoFundMe. “The mom looked at me and yelled, ‘Please hold my baby.’”
Ashcroft said she grabbed the family’s 6-month-old child as chaos unfolded around them.
“While holding the small child, I noticed her whole head was covered in bloody burns,” she wrote. “There were pieces of flesh and blood scattered everywhere. The family was all exposed to the fire, all missing hair and skin.”
Despite alerting firefighters that her own cats, Smokey and Batch, were still inside, Ashcroft said the situation was overwhelming. Both pets died in the fire.
“I left the premises covered in the smell of burnt flesh,” she wrote. “I lost everything I’ve ever had — my paintings, my instruments, my furniture, and most important to me, my long-deceased dad’s guitar.”
Neighbors told Fox 10 the fire burned for hours before crews were able to fully extinguish it.
“Definitely a scary situation,” resident Jesse Flores said. “Flames were still really high. It felt like they were hitting it with water and the fire just kept growing.”
Another neighbor, Susan Paschall, added, “I just pray for those people. There were so many fire trucks, and they just kept coming.”
The cause of the fire has not yet been announced, and the investigation remains ongoing.