A young girl in upstate New York who survived a fire that killed four of her family members five years ago is finally getting a chance to open some Christmas gifts.
A few million of them, in fact.
Safyre Terry was only five years old when she was badly burned in an arson fire in Schenectady that killed her father, sister and two brothers in May 2013, and her injuries from the blaze also caused the young girl to lose a portion of her right arm.
As she continued to recover from the tragic incident, Safyre's aunt created a touching Facebook post in December 2015 saying that all her niece wanted for Christmas was a greeting card, and the post quickly went viral.
Cards and gifts began pouring in from all over the world — Safyre even received a card from President Obama and his family — until the total reached roughly two million.
Much of what Safyre received was loaded into a tractor trailer that was placed in storage, but this past Sunday a group of emergency services personnel in Montgomery County helped the 10-year-old unload the items into a vacant one-room school house.
The items will now be sorted and then distributed to other area child fire victims per Safyre's wishes.
The unloading effort took about two hours with the help of Town of Florida volunteer firefighters under the direction of Chief Les Bramer.
Although federal investigators deemed the fire that injured Safyre and killed her family members arson, the perpetrator has never been caught and a $40,000 reward remains open to anyone with information leading to an arrest and conviction.
