With most of the life in a motel room, Misty Brewington and her daughter are still counting their blessings. "You don't know what you have until it's gone," says 14 year old Mariah. 32 year old Misty was home at her apartment on Beacon Street in Spartanburg with her young son Thursday morning, when one sound sent her into a panic. "He was upstairs and I heard the smoke detector go off, so I ran upstairs and her room was on fire." The blaze was spreading quickly, so Misty grabbed the child and ran out. "My first instinct was to go find him," she says. Now, she's saying that smoke detector made all the difference. "I believe that's what really saved us, because the whole apartment would have been on fire, and I would have been downstairs cooking and not even known."
Spartanburg firefighters say the whole thing started with the boy got ahold of a cigarette lighter. Brewington says it's a lesson she's preached 100 times, but learned it wasn't enough. "I just got on to him the other day for playing with lighters," she says. For parents, she has one other lesson. "Buy childproof lighters!"
The struggling family is trying to move on, thankful things weren't any worse. "A house, you can replace that," says Mariah. "You can't replace a life."
The Red Cross is assisting the family. They hope to have a new apartment soon.
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