Published: November 02, 2009 10:47 am      

Fundraiser helps family after fatal fire

By Becky Manley / Staff Writer

A longtime volunteer, Renee Benfield Gatewood, 34, is used to giving — not asking — for help.

But in the wake of an Oct. 7 fire that destroyed her home and killed her mother, Gatewood said she has no choice.

“I’m one of the last people to ask for it but my family needs help,” Gatewood said.

What little money Gatewood said she had was spent on her mother’s, Deborah Benfield’s, funeral, which was held two days after the 56-year-old woman perished from smoke inhalation in the blaze at 564 Byrley Road, Corbin.

Another woman who lived at the house, Cheryl Winn, escaped the fire through her bedroom window, Gatewood said.

While still inside the burning house, Winn called Gatewood.

“She was trying to scream and I could barely understand her,” Gatewood said. “She said, ‘I can’t get out of the door. It’s on fire.’”

When Gatewood got the harrowing call, she said she was at a friend’s house. She had planned to invite the friend to breakfast with her and her boys, who had spent the night at their friend’s house.

Winn escaped the burning house as did Gatewood’s dog, Maggie May, but within hours, Gatewood received a call from the coroner and learned her mother was dead.

Since the fire, Gatewood said she has not been emotionally able to return to the rented house and she faced a deadline of noon last Friday to remove her salvageable possessions to keep them from being discarded.

Neighbors have also told Gatewood they’ve seen people stealing items from the burned home.

“Why anybody would want to go in there and take what we’ve got left, I have no idea,” Gatewood said.

Gatewood said she has also been upset by rumors that the fire began because her mother, who used oxygen following an illness, was smoking in the house.

“My mother does not smoke in the house,” Gatewood said. “A lot of people tried to say that. That’s not true.”

Since the fire, Gatewood said she and her two children, Colby Lenoir, 6, and Chandler Lenoir, 9, have moved four different times and are currently staying with a friend.

Colby and Chandler have received generous donations of clothes, Gatewood said.

“I was overwhelmed with what Corbin Independent Schools have given,” Gatewood said.

Despite the generosity, Gatewood said her family still has many needs.

On Thursday, a tearful Gatewood said she had hoped to bury her mother but didn’t have the money to pay for it. As a result, her mother was cremated and Gatewood said she found the cremains in a box outside her door that morning.

“We literally lost everything including my mother and I would give everything, everything I’ve ever had in my life, to have my mother back,” Gatewood said.

Becky Manley can be reached at bmanley@thetimestribune.com