BOISE, Idaho — A Boise family continues mourning the death of their 2-year-old daughter who died last month after the family's truck caught fire on the Boise Bench.
Rollerdrome Skating Rink in Nampa hosted a fundraiser aiming to help the family cover their medical bills during their recovery as three family members remain in the hospital.
A portion of Thursday night's admissionand rental sales will be sent to Kenny and Rachel Homer.
Rollerdrome Owner, Josh Leanty said, “It's special to me as far as them losing a kid, we want to help lessen the burden and what’s happening with them try to give back the best that we can. Thats the only way I know how to give back to them and it's not hard for us to make a decision to do it”
I caught up with the parents via zoom from the burn unit in Salt Lake City. One day after their daughter Onix would have turned three years old.
“She was the sweetest little girl you would've ever met, she was just so kindhearted and so funny,” said Rachel Homer.
The fire that killed 2-year-old Onix left 4-year-old Eevee, 10-month-old Dragonair and mother Rachel Homer severely burned.
Rachel said, "It feels like it took forever for ambulances and firetrucks to get there. It feels like only police showed up. There were police there for so long and more and more police kept coming and it just like there were no ambulances and no fire trucks for so long.”
The Boise Fire Department says that the fire was caused accidentally by a catastrophic failure of a portable jump-starting system.
Rachel tells me the jump starter was placed back in their truck after using the battery to jump start their bus.
She said, “Our bus didn't really have much gas in it, we wanted it to idle for a while so that it would charge the battery so I was going to go back to the gas station and get more gas to bring to it and when I got back to the truck with the with the gas can it was already on fire.”
Rachel quickly jumped into action screaming for her husband Kenny.
The two tried their best to save their children who were sitting in the truck, but were unable to get Onix out of her car seat.
"I tried to pull her, and she was still stuck in it and I went back out for a second because the fire just hurt so bad and it was just too late, it was just too many flames to go back in again,” said Rachel
Rachel, Kenny, and their two children are recovering at the burn center in Salt Lake and are expected to stay for at least two more months.
Their 4-year-old Eevee, who couldn't walk after the fire, now taking a few steps.
She and her mom Rachel have one surgery left, both having three surgeries so far.
Rachel said, “We were really surprised to see how supportive the community has been. We never really felt super at home in Boise, but after this we feel a lot more connected to community and it made us feel not so alone."
That community support was shown at Rollerdrome in Nampa raising $1,140 for the Homer family.
The Homer family wants to thank everyone for their support and prayers during this devastating time.
If you'd like to help you can donate to their GoFundMe.
