WALDORF, Md. — A wall of flames.
Anesha Berry says she had just awakened to get ready for church on Sunday when she saw the house on fire two doors down.
“When I looked out the window, I saw the flames,” Anesha recalled, “The flames were like as high as the trees.”
Anesha and her husband ran down the street and grabbed a lawn chair for a survivor who emergency responders had sitting on the ground.
WATCH: Investigation continues in Waldorf fire that left six dead, including four children
“The poor man was just confused and he sees what’s happening. He just kept saying, ‘My wife and child’,” said Anesha, “He got up and the poor man was just looking at his house and he was trying to walk so my husband and I we said, ‘You have to come sit down. Please let the first responders do what they do’, but you could see the hurt and the sorrow in his face and the desperation, because he's trying to get to his family.”
While two adults made in out and another wasn’t home at the time of the fire, six other people perished including four children, the eldest were told was about nine years old.
Investigators say it appears the fire started in an enclosed porch on the side of the house, but they have no idea what actually sparked it.
While there’s evidence the house had smoke detectors, it remains unclear whether they were working at the time, and as the president of her homeowners association, Anesha and other residents are prepared to solicit sponsors to provide them elsewhere in the community for free.
“They’re a dime a dozen,” explained Anesha, “They’re updated these days. They have 10-year batteries so that’s another thing that our HOA board is trying to insure that all 144 homes in our community as well as our neighbors down Constitution Autumn Hills, they have the proper equipment installed in their homes.”
Anything to prevent a similar tragedy, and one Anesha, her husband and other neighbors may never forget.
“Then the fire marshal came to us and said, ‘We need for all of you to go to your homes’, and that’s when we saw them pulling out the body bags and we all just lost it,” said Anesha, “but looking at those flames, I’m not a professional when it comes to that, but it’s hard to imagine how anybody could have survived.”
