Lafayette Mother Loses Home in Fire

Posted: Sep 29, 2010 6:22 PM by Melissa Hawkes
Updated: Sep 29, 2010 6:28 PM

A mother of three suffered a major setback ...a fire destroyed her Lafayette home.

"I lost everything I have," Victoria Hypolite explained sitting outside her burned home.

A day later and the smell of smoke is still in the air.

She said, "I just stood across the street and watched my house burn."

Hypolite and her two year daughter were sleeping when the fire broke out. Neighbors rushed over to make sure they were okay.

Kenneth Castille was the first to see the smoke. He said, "I thought they were barbequing. We thought it was kind of early for them to be barbequing and smoke got real thick. I saw this black smoke and I ran to the side right here, and I saw the flames."

Hypolite and her daughter managed to get out of their home unharmed, but had to watch all of their precious belongings go up in flames.

She said she lost, "all of my kids clothes, work clothes, shoes, pull-ups, beds and TVs."

The dryer started the fire. Hypolite had put a load of laundry in and twenty minutes later it was on fire. The flames eventually took over the entire house.

The only thing Hypolite said she can do now is try to move forward and surround herself by family.

Her mother, Cinderella Vallier, said "focus on trying to get them taken care of and see what we can do to get them back on their feet and get the kids back in school."

Hypolite said the "most important thing is that I have my kids."

The city is temporarily providing a place for the Hypolites to stay.