- April 25, 2024
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The community is coming together to help a family in need. At the scene of a May 8 fire on Ocean Palm Drive, near Gamble Rogers State Park in Flagler Beach, the home of a family of five is charred rubble, and the family was injured.
The mother, Jessica Johnson, and 11-month-old Landon Ghomely were airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center. Flagler County Fire Cheif Don Petito said on WNZF’s “Free For All Friday” that patients are taken to the burn center when their full circumference has been burned.
James Ghomely and Elizabeth Johnson, 2, were treated at Florida Hospital Flagler, and Madison Johnson, 5, was taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, according to a Flagler County news release.
“They lost everything in the fire that night. It was pretty brutal,” said School Board member Colleen Conklin, who lives a few blocks away but came out to the scene as the fire trucks arrived. “We were able to stay with Madison for a little while until she was taken by the EMTs. …They lost everything in the fire: their car, everything.”
Community individuals and organizations are organizing assistance for the Johnson family, gathering clothing, money and gas cards, some of which are being stored at the Flagler Beach Police Department, at 204 S. Flagler Ave. (see the box below).
“The outpouring of donations has been a beautiful testament to our community,” Conklin said. “Now we just need to make sure we have a location where they can hold everything.”
The Johnson house, built on wooden stilts, was fully engulfed by the time Flagler Beach Engine 11 arrived after being dispatched at 2:09 a.m. Two engines and three rescue crews from Flagler County, two engines from Volusia County and one engine from Palm Coast were dispatched, but it was too late to save the home or is contents. The charred stilts were still standing in the fire’s rubble, but little else remained.
“The house was a stilt house and it went up like a matchstick,” Petito said in a county news release.
The man next door
The resident of 210 Ocean Palm Drive gathered the few things he could from his burned former home May 12 — there wasn’t much: a gas grill, a seven-foot grandfather clock, and a handful of other items — and loaded them onto a U-Haul truck.
Since the fire that damaged his home and destroyed his neighbor’s in the early morning hours of May 8, said the man, who asked not to be named, he’s been living in a Daytona hotel out of the three garbage bags he was able to fill with possessions after a law enforcement officer told him he had about a minute to grab what he could and flee the burning house.
He was asleep when the fire began. “I was awoken between 2 a.m. and 2:15 a.m. by the smoke alarm.” he said. “I went to the west side of the house, and the outline of my window — it was glowing neon orange. I thought my house was on fire and the one that was about to burn down. I actually came out here and was trying to douse my privacy fence, trying to keep it wet."
He said he was thankful for the assistance of emergency and law enforcement officers, and the Red Cross.
The State Fire Marshal is investigating the fire’s cause but has not yet released any findings.
BOX: HOW TO HELP
Christmas Come True is organizing assistance for the Johnson-Ghomely family and searching for a two-bedroom Flagler-Beach area home for about $800/month or less that the family can move into. “Maybe if somebody could do something like give them two months free rent to get them started, that would be great,” Christmas Come True founder Nadine King said.
Christmas Come True is also collecting the following for the family:
A double stroller
Size four diapers
Baby wipes
Gas cards
Similac sensitive baby formula
Gas cards
Packaged children’s snacks
Size 32/34 men’s pants
Large men’s shirts shirt
Size 2 male baby clothes
Size 2/3 and 5/6 girl’s clothes
Size medium men’s shirts
Size 31/32 men’s pants
Size medium women’s clothes
Loose women’s sundresses
Bedding for twin and queen sized beds
Small kitchen appliances like toasters or blenders
A bureau/dresser
A bicycle or moped that James Ghomely can use to get to work
Christmas Come True is also collecting men’s XXL T-shirts and 36/32 men’s pants for the resident of 210 Ocean Palm Drive.
Monetary donations can be made at christmascometrue.org, earmarked “Johnson family.” Monetary and property contributions can also be dropped off at the Flagler Beach Police Department at 204 S. Flagler Ave. or sent by mail to Christmas Come True at 1399 North Oceanshore Blvd., Flagler Beach, FL 32136. For more information, visit http://on.fb.me/1e2h2cd or call Nadine King at 569-4429.
