Family recalls trying to save mother and son from St. Martinville house fire, "I was home. The flame was too high."
ST. MARTIN PARISH, La. (KLFY)- A St. Martinville mother and her son are dead after their home caught fire Monday morning.
Their family, who lives right next door, say they did everything they could to save them.
"All this tragedy went down right in front of my face, and I couldn't move to go help," Lawrence Sam, the victims' family member said.
Bound to a wheelchair, Sam says when the fire started, all he could do was watch the flames engulf his Aunt Mazel and her son Gregory's home right next door.
"I was home. One of my other sons, I'm hollering at him, 'Fire! Fire!' He came out, and he ran. He tried to help them, but he couldn't. The flame was too high," Sam said.
He says the smoke and flames pushed his cousin, Gregory, out of the home that morning, but he went back inside for his mom. He never made it back outside.
"I'm hollering at my son, 'Come see,' hollering at him, and he came right here and went trying to break the door down, tried to go in there and help them," he added.
Sam says the flames, however, were too powerful.
Gregory Sam and his mom, Mazel Sam, 89, died inside together.
"She was a good aunt. If you needed something, we'd go to her. If I needed something from him, he came provide for me," Sam said.
Sam says every night he sits outside on his porch, and his aunt and cousin Gregory sit outside on theirs, and the three talk for hours. Tuesday will be the first night in years where they won't be able to do that.