Family Says Three-Year-Old Girl Is A Hero, “She Saved All Of Our Lives”
March 7, 2008
Three-year-old Elizabeth White is being called a hero by her family. Her mom credits Elizabeth for saving their lives.
Last Saturday afternoon was an ordinary one around the White household on Campbell Road in Century. Lunch was over. Mom Tiffany White had just loaded the dishwasher. She was home with her three kids, three year old Elizabeth, five year old Alicyn and two year old Landon. Dad Jason White had just left the house for a short trip.
“Then Elizabeth told me that she saw smoke,” Tiffany said. “I thought she had just seen the steam from the dishwasher. At first I didn’t think anything about what she was saying. Then I thought maybe I did see smoke cross outside the window. I went over and opened the back door. I saw fire everywhere.”
The utility room, located just outside the kitchen, was filled with a raging fire, Tiffany said. She grabbed the children and headed across the road to safety.
“If Elizabeth hadn’t seen the smoke when she did, we would have all got burned up in there,” Tiffany told NorthEscambia.com Thursday, standing outside the burned out shell of her home. “She saved all of our lives. She is our little hero. I’m proud of her.”
Elizabeth, who will celebrate her fourth birthday on Tuesday, was a bit shy about being interviewed by a stranger. But she did say she was not a hero. And she said she was not scared.
When NorthEscambia.com arrived Thursday, Jason and Tiffany were sifting through the burned out home, looking for anything they could salvage. Tiffany had just found a small photo album containing just handful of family photos. There’s a glimmer of hope in her eyes and she picks up the album and opens it for the first time. But her hope quickly turns to disappointment. The plastic on the album is melted to most of the photos. Others are a bit charred, or falling apart from becoming wet.
“These are about the only pictures I have left of my kids,” Tiffany said. “Most of my pictures were in frames on the walls. I’m going to miss my pictures of my babies.”
But she’s very thankful that she still has her babies and continues to praise Elizabeth has a hero.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, grows bored with the whole interview as one might expect from a three-year-old. She runs around the yard, which still contains several of the children’s outside play toys. She runs around excited and playful, hiding from our camera as much as she can. She’s turned avoid the NorthEscambia.com camera into a game of sorts.
Then she stops by the front corner of the house and points up toward the burned out window.
“I want to see my room,” she says. “Take me in there.”
Tiffany explains that she can’t take her inside because it is not safe.
“But I want to see,” she says. “Daddy, hold me up to the window so I can see my room. I want my toys.”
Jason tells her maybe later.
She does not seem to understand that her favorite toys — her Beanie Babies, her My Little Ponies and her stuffed animals — are not just inside that window anymore. They, like all the family’s possessions, are gone.
The family had no insurance, Jason said. They are currently crowded in the home of his parents, Kenneth and Ruby White in Flomaton, while they figure out what they will do next.
In the meantime, the community continues to pull together to help the Whites. Many have donated clothes and other items; some have donated money. If you would like help the family, email news@northescambia.com and we will put you in touch with family . Their primary need right now is for a house to rent in the area. Once they find that house, they will need household items, toys for the children and clothes.
Pictured top of page: Three year old Elizabeth White stands in front of her burned out home. Pictured below: Elizabeth points toward her room. Pictured bottom of page: Tiffany White looks at the only family photos that she could find. NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos. Click to enlarge.
To read NorthEscambia.com’s story about the fire, click here.
To view a photo album from Saturday’s fire, click here.
CrossFaith Steeple Goes Up On New Church Building
March 6, 2008
The steeple was raised at the new CrossFaith Church building on Highway 29 in Molino Wednesday morning.
“It is a huge blessing,” Pastor Rob Hines said as he watched the steeple settle onto the roof of the new building.
There is a big missions conference scheduled for the church in mid April, and Hines fully expects to be in the building by then. He hopes that the congregation will be meeting in the new sanctuary by the end of this month, if all goes as planned.
The building includes a 300 seat sanctuary, a fellowship hall area that will double as a youth meeting room, classroom space and offices.
The church is currently located on Molino Road. That building has been put up for sale.
For a complete photo gallery of the steeple going up and from the inside of the church, click here.
Carver/Century Students Celebrate Dr. Seuss Birthday This Week
March 6, 2008
It has been a week of green eggs and ham, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish and a fellow named Horton hearing a a Who this week at Carver/Century K-8 School.
The Carver students, from Pre-K to eighth grade, have been busy celebrating the birthday week of Theodor Seuss Geisel — better known as Dr. Seuss.
Students have enjoyed a nice snack of green eggs and ham and dressed up as characters such as the Cat in the Hat. The middle schools students have read Dr. Seuss classics to the elementary students. And first grade students even made bags of oobleck.
(Oobleck, by the way, is from Bartholomew and the Oobleck which follows the further adventures of the young royal page Bartholomew Cubbins of the kingdom of Didd as he tries to clean up after King Derwin orders an ill-advised magical spell cast to create something new coming from the sky, an extremely sticky green substance known as oobleck.)
For a photo gallery from this week’s Dr. Seuss birthday celebrations at Carver/Century, click here.
Byrneville Soldier Currently Serving In Southeastern Iraq
March 4, 2008
Airman 1st Class William McCann of Byrneville is currently serving with the United States Air Force in Iraq.
Airman McCann is deployed with the 887th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, which conducts combat patrols to deter local insurgents from attacking Camp Bucca. The combat patrols include looking for improvised explosive devices and gathering intelligence by directly engaging Iraqis in the local communities. The squadron is the only U.S. defense force that provides continual patrols “outside the wire” (venturing outside the secure zone) in southeast Iraq. Camp Bucca is an Iraqi prison camp holding over 20,000 detainees.
“A lot of young boys look on their dads as their heroes,” McCann’s father Billy McCann told NorthEscambia.com. “I look on my son as my hero!! I couldn’t be prouder! But I do not want to appear to brag on my son because there are several boys from this area who have been to Iraq or who are there now.”
McCann is a 2005 graduate of Northview High School. He is married to the former Crystal Crocker of Pensacola. She resides at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
Pictured above: Airman 1st Class William McCann conducts communications checks as he prepares for an outside the wire mission in southeast Iraq. Pictured below: Airman 1st Class William McCann readies his gear before going outside the wire to conduct security operations in southeast Iraq. Click either photo to enlarge.
If you know someone from the North Escambia area currently serving in Iraq, Afghanistan or another war zone, send us an email news@northescambia.com and let us know. We would love to feature them in a future story.
Bratt First Graders Present Play ‘Three of a Kind’
February 29, 2008
The first graders at Bratt Elementary School presented the play “Three of a Kind” at a Thursday night PTA meeting.
For a complete NorthEscambia.com photo gallery from the play, click here.
Three blind mice, three muskateers, Snow White, several dwarfs, Dorothy and Scarecrow, the three kittens (who lost their mittens), Little Red Riding Hood, the three little pigs, Peter Pan and a host of other childhood favorites took to the stage along with a lot of teddy bears.
But Baby Bear was missing. Three by three, the characters attempted to find Baby Bear by listening to the clues provided. After the characters learned to listen, Baby Bear was located safe and sound, asleep in a tree stump.
The play was present by the first grade classes of Mrs. Rolin, Mrs. Trice and Mrs. Gilmore under the direction of Emily Pollard. Songs included “Three of a Kind”, “Look High, Look Low”, “The Bear Song”, “All For One” and “Listen”.
During the PTA meeting prior to the play, it was reported that last fall’s cookie dough sale raised about $10,500 for the school. The money will be used for curtains, chairs and a sound system for the school’s multipurpose room.
NorthEscambia.com photos. Click to enlarge.
Walnut Hill Man Honored For Service In Florida Highway Patrol Auxiliary
February 28, 2008
Harold O. “Sonny” Blum of Walnut Hill was honored for 37 years of service as an auxiliary trooper at a recent meeting of the Warrington Kiwanis Club. Blum joined the Florida Highway Patrol Auxiliary on March 27, 1970. During his 37 years volunteering with the auxiliary, he logged over 30,000 hours of service.
Blum (pictured above, right) was presented with a Certificate of Retirement by Scott Lunsford (pictured above, left) of the FHP Auxilliary. Blum also received a letter from Colonel Christopher Knight, director of the Florida Highway Patrol.
“You will be missed by all members of the Florida Highway Patrol family,” the letter says. “On behalf of your many friends, we wish you the very best in your retirement.”
The Escambia County Commission honored Blum with a proclamation at their January 10 meeting. He was presented with that proclamation at the Kiwanis meeting.
NorthEscambia.com first told you about Blum back on January 11, after we sat down with him at his Walnut Hill home. He reflected on his many years of service to the FHP. To read that article, click here.