VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich. --
A woman rescued a Van Buren Township family of six, including five children, from a house fire early Thursday morning, police said.
Firefighters responded to the home on East Adams Street in Presidential Estates around 12:30 a.m. to find the garage engulfed in fire and the family with the neighbors out on the lawn.
The children's parents were at a neighbor's house playing cards, when their friend Amy Daykin came out to make a phone call and noticed the Pickards' garage in flames. The woman and the children's parents entered the burning home through the side door, and alerted the family.
Constance Pickard said she was on the computer, while her five grandchildren were asleep.
"I heard some screaming and my son waved and my daughter-in-law was screaming that the house was on fire and I couldn't believe it because I couldnt smell nothing, hear nothing," said the Pickard.
The room her two granddaughters were sleeping in was completely destroyed in the fire and they would not be alive if the woman had not seen the garage in flames, according to firefighters.
"I remember being dragged out of the bed, they told me there was a fire, and I was spinning in circles, because I was still asleep, and I was looking for my little brother," said rescued daughter Alyssa Hurd.
Firefighters said the family did not have batteries in the smoke detector and the cause of the fire is still unknown, according to firefighters.
All six family members, including Constance Pickard's grandchildren, ranging in ages from 4 to 16 made it out safely, said Van Buren Township Fire Lt. Dan Besson.
Pickard, her grandchildren, and 31-year-old son and his wife must find a new place to stay while they struggle to come up with more than $60,000 in fire damages to their house.
Pickard said she does not have insurance on the home and her son, wife and his three children, Dillon, 11, Preston, 4, and Alyssa, 14, moved in with her after their house was foreclosed. Pickard is also raising two other grandchildren, Angelica, 16, and Veronica, 14.
The American Red Cross is working with the family to find shelter, food and clothing.
Also, people can leave a donation for The Pickard Family Emergency Fund at any Flagstar Bank.
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