- April 26, 2024
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A Palm Coast family of eight is looking for a new home after a fire destroyed their rental home’s garage and spread soot and smoke throughout the home.
Cindy Newton and her partner Luke Paulsen lived at the home in the F Section for four years with their six kids: Ava, 16, Tyler, 11, Logan, 8, Maddie, 7, Sophia, 4, Lukas, 2. Most of the family had gone to sleep on Feb. 29 when loud pops sounded from the garage.
Paulsen was awake in the living room at the time and opened the connecting garage door to see the cause of the noise. That is when he saw the garage was engulfed in flames, Newton said.
“Everybody was asleep and then shortly after that I heard screaming," she said. "I mean, frantic screaming — like, 'Fire! Oh my god!' — from Luke."
She said she got the kids out through a window while Paulsen attempted to pour water on the flames. Something exploded as he did, burning Paulsen across his head, face, neck chest and arms.
Newton said he spent five days in a trauma center. Now he is home and healing and the family is trying to figure out their next moves.
Their house is unlivable, she said, with fire, smoke and water damage. The family will have to dump almost everything in the home, she said.
Courtney Taylor, a neighbor and friend of the family who let them stay in their home for the first week, created a GoFundMe for the family. Newton said she has already had many people reach out with donations of furniture, beds and clothes, but have nowhere to put them.
They're working on getting a storage unit for the larger donations, she said.
Newton said her first priority is finding a new place for the family to live, and Chiumento CARES — a fund established at the Chiumento Law Firm to help end student homelessness — is working with her to connect her to local realtors while the family stays with Paulsen's brother. But when asked what it is her family needs, she said she felt petty to ask for this, but she would love for her kids to have some toys to get them through this time.
It's difficult, she said, knowing they do not have their own things and have to watch other kids play with their toys.
"They don't have anything," she said. "It's just tough and I hate asking for [something] that might be petty to somebody ... but they don't have anything."
