A Mercer County community answered the call to help father and son first responders who lost everything to a house fire.
Firefighter Dave Krueger says that he was one of the first responders on the scene for an Aug. 4 fire on Woolsey Street. He says that at the time he did not know he was coming to the aid of one of his fellow firefighters.
“There was smoke coming over the top of the house,” he says. “There was heavy fire blowing out the back of the rear of the house.”
The home belonged to firefighter Matt Sanders. Sanders, his longtime EMT father Rich, Sanders’ girlfriend and their dog had to escape the fire by jumping out of the windows.
“I realized it was Matt when I turned and looked across the street and saw him. No shirt, no shoes, no nothing,” Krueger says.
Sanders lost all his uniforms in the fire. So his brothers in the fire department banded together to buy him some clothes.
“We bought shirts for him from a guy that makes our shirts, and we went and bought them for him so he would have something to work in,” Krueger says.
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GoFundMe page was set up and quickly went viral after it was posted on Facebook. Thousands of dollars were raised.
“I want to say it was close to $7,500 two hours in, three hours in,” says Krueger. “Obviously we all donated but the outpouring from the public - Facebook can be evil sometimes but it can be good on the other hand and in this case that's what it was.”
All proceeds from the fundraiser will go to help the Sanders family replace what they lost in the fire.