Mother of 7 homeless after house catches on fire

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. - Tiffany Hightower woke to a nightmare.

She and six of her children were asleep in bed when a fire broke out in the family’s Rex home late Saturday night.

“It was flames everywhere,“ Hightower told FOX 5’s Deidra Dukes.

Now homeless, Hightower returned to the residence on Glen Hollow Drive Monday.

Her 15-year-old daughter Dyriell Irby helped recover what little is left of the family’s belongings. The fire started in Irby's upstairs bedroom at around midnight. 

“I had lit a candle and then I set it in my window then I had went downstairs to go fix me something to drink and I guess the candle had fell on the bed and when I came back up the bed was on fire,” Irby said.

Hightower and her seven children made it out with little more than the clothes on their backs. A relative has taken them in.

But with another baby on the way, Hightower is out of work and overwhelmed at the prospect of starting over.

She’s turning to the public for donations of clothing, household goods and other items, and has started a GoFundMe page to help the family get back on their feet.

“It’s hard, reliving it over and over again. Trying to start over. Single parent, seven kids, and having a baby in 10 days – it’s kind of scary,” she said.

For more on how you can help Hightower and her family, click here.