‘I lost everything I have.’ Pierce Co. fire survivor still fighting to recover
Almost a month after she lost everything, Melinda Grey is still in the hospital.
Her mother, Laminda Lawyer, told The News Tribune that Grey is facing possible surgery from the burns all over her body and remains on dialysis because her kidneys aren’t functioning properly.
“The doctors keep telling me it’s a long road ahead,” Lawyer told The News Tribune.
Grey has been in the hospital since June 4 when a fire destroyed her house in Graham. She was living at the house with her boyfriend and two roommates and was working at Burger King, Lawyer said.
She was the only burn victim in the fire, Central Pierce Fire & Rescue previously told The News Tribune, and was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries.
Ken Rice, spokesperson for the Pierce County Fire Prevention Bureau, told The News Tribune that investigators determined the cause of the fire was accidental and started on the back porch. The roommates “carelessly disposed of the smoking material,” prompting the fire, Rice said.
Lawyer and her husband, Joseph, have since set up a GoFundMe to help with Grey’s medical bills. As of 2 p.m. on June 30, the fundraiser has raised $2,800 of its $16,000 goal.
‘You might have lost everything you had, but you didn’t lose your life’
Lawyer told The News Tribune that her daughter gave her account of what happened.
“She woke up to smoke because she was asleep. She wasn’t feeling good the night before and she had work. She woke up to smoke and fire and nobody was there,” Lawyer said. “She was telling me that she got her cellphone out and, as she got out, felt herself collapsing.”
Grey was able to get to a nearby neighbor’s house and ask for help, Lawyer told The News Tribune.
“[That’s] the last thing she remembers, and then she passed out on the grass,” Lawyer said.
Lawyer was in Texas for a family member’s funeral when she got the call about Grey’s injuries, she said.
“I was very in a panic and I felt helpless, I felt really helpless, because I was so far,” Lawyer said. “I couldn’t be there for my daughter and my question to the doctor was, ‘OK, is my daughter, [is it] life and death? Do I need to come now? …Thank God that I didn’t need to come right away, but I just broke down and cried.”
The doctors don’t have an estimate for how long Grey will be in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Lawyer said. After she is released, she will move in with her parents and try to rebuild her life.
“She has lost everything she has. She doesn’t have anything,” Lawyer said. “When she first started talking [again], she told my son, she said, ‘Brother, I lost everything I have,’ and I said, ‘Listen, you might have lost everything you had, but you didn’t lose your life, and I thank God for that.’”
Lawyer — who runs the Imagine Me Foundation, a cancer nonprofit — said her family, community and people she has helped in the past have rallied around her and Grey, giving them the hope they need to get through a challenging time.
“I’m grateful that [God] spared her life, because it could have been a different story,” Laminda Lawyer said. “I could be burying my daughter, but I don’t have that story.”
