On a blustery day, a Gwinnett County father sat on his driveway, staring at the charred frame of what used to be his home. The cold was in stark contrast to the intense heat of the flames that hours before roared through the two-story house.
Brent Patterson made it out of the house, surviving with burns to his hands and leg. His wife and two daughters did not.
“I hope to God they were asleep,” Patterson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I don’t know. I have to hope.”
The air still smelled smoky outside the Tucker home where Patterson returned Wednesday evening, still in shock. Around 8:30 Tuesday night, Patterson was home with his wife, Kathy, and their daughters, Madelyn, 9, and Kayla, who turned 12 in January. When he heard an odd noise, Patterson, who was the only one downstairs, went to check it out.
“When I opened the front door, the house exploded,” Patterson said.
Patterson doesn't remember hearing the smoke alarm buzzing upstairs, where his family was. But he yelled for them to get out.
With a neighbor’s help, Patterson broke the glass on a back door, but the heat and flames were too intense. Even the firefighters that arrived couldn’t go into the home, even knowing there were people still inside.
“I couldn’t get back in,” Patterson said. “It was gone.”
Gone was a houseful of memories shared with the three most important people in his life.
“They’re dead,” Patterson told Channel 2 Action News as tears streamed down his face earlier Wednesday. “My whole life is over. My whole life is over.”
It took until 5:30 Wednesday morning for investigators to locate all three of the victims. The family dog was also found by firefighters, who then buried the pet in the backyard.
As neighbors watched helplessly, word spread quickly to the Pattersons’ friends, including the congregation of Tucker First United Methodist Church, where the family attended.
At 36, Kathy Patterson’s passions were her family and dancing, and she was graceful and talented at both, her friends said. A ballet dancer, Patterson performed for the congregation a few times a year, including most recently at Christmas.
“Beautiful. Beautiful,” Beth Odom said Wednesday afternoon at the church.
With her long arms and legs, and softly flowing ensembles, Patterson looked like an angel when she danced. Her two daughters were smaller images of her, pictures showed.
'It’s OK To Cry'
Sunday mornings, Patterson and her girls were in church, even when her husband couldn’t attend because of his schedule as a restaurant owner. Amy Ownbey, a member of the church choir, loved seeing the family’s happy faces.
“You’d always see them in the first or second row,” Ownbey said.
The same sanctuary where Kathy Patterson danced as her family looked on was the same place friends gathered Wednesday afternoon to pray and reflect. Two guitars played soft, acoustic harmonies as adults and children quietly filed in and out. Many sat for an hour, quietly listening to the music and sobs. Even the young children were quiet, and one young boy hugged his older sister as if to say, “It’s OK to cry.”
Looking For Clues
Outside the sanctuary Wednesday, Odom said she got a call that morning about the fire, but was still struggling to believe it.
“You really just can’t fathom it,” Odom said. “You can’t make sense of this kind of thing. You have to rely on your faith to get you through.”
Throughout the day Wednesday, fire investigators remained at the Pointer Ridge home looking for clues to what happened. Though the official cause had not been determined late Wednesday, investigators believe the blaze started in a first-floor living room, in the area of an electric-powered reclining couch, according to Capt. Tommy Rutledge with the Gwinnett fire department.
'An Example Of Love'
The couch was across the wall from the fireplace, which was burning at the time of the blaze. Within the same room, there were lamps positioned on either side of the couch, Rutledge said. The fire quickly extended to the second floor via a heat return vent and a mechanical/HVAC closet, Rutledge said in an emailed statement.
“Fire investigators say that burn patterns and witness accounts match their findings and that no foul play is suspected at this point,” Rutledge said. “Please keep in mind that the information is preliminary.”
Outside the home, neighbors brought flowers, balloons and drawings Wednesday night. Evelyn Vega said her grandchildren often played with the Patterson girls, who often played outside and rode their bikes. The Pattersons, Vega said, were the nicest family she’d known in the neighborhood during her 15 years of living there.
“They were the heart of the neighborhood,” Vega said. “They surely will be missed. They were just an example of love.”
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