Tyler McCain became emotional as he told CNN he and his family are “living in limbo” after fire reduced their home in the Texas Panhandle town of Fritch to rubble and ash Tuesday. But what’s really gnawing at him is trying to explain the loss to his tearful 3-year-old.
His toddler, Addison, can be seen crying in the family’s car in a heartbreaking video posted on Facebook.
“Why are you crying?” McCain asks her.
“I want (the) house,” Addison says through gulping sobs. Her father consoles her, saying, “We’ll get another house, OK?”
The McCains and their three daughters — the others 1 and 9 years old — were able to evacuate before flames engulfed their neighborhood, but they weren’t prepared for what they found when they returned to the home Wednesday, he said.
“I pulled into the driveway and started shaking,” he said. His wife yelled in anguish. He recalls thinking, “It’s gone. My house is gone.”
Seeing Addison cry over the home and ask for her burned belongings has broken him, McCain said.
“Everything she keeps asking for, I ask myself why I didn’t grab that. Her favorite stuffed animal — why didn’t I get it for her?” the father said.
McCain does not know what comes next. He fears that whatever the family’s fire insurance covers will be used to pay the mortgage. For now, they have several family members to rely on for a safe place to stay.
“I keep telling myself to feel thankful and blessed that the fire did not spread in the night when we were sleeping,” McCain said. “A house is a house, but we’re all together and that’s where home is.”
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