JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An Arlington family is heading into the holiday season without a home after a fire earlier this month destroyed nearly everything they owned in the middle of the night.
The cause turned out to be something most families use every day: the dryer. Firefighters said thousands of similar fires happen nationwide every year.
For Brian Mason and his family, the damage is devastating.
“I don’t think there’s any rebounding from this,” he said, fighting back tears. “If it is, it’ll be a miracle.”
It was early November when Mason’s stepson smelled something burning from the laundry room.
Moments later, he began waking up the five adults, a cat, and a service dog inside.
“We were all out in the yard in t-shirts and shorts. No shoes,” Mason said. “We didn’t try to grab anything… we just wanted to get out.”
Pictures still hang on soot-stained walls. The smell of smoke lingers in every room, even weeks later.
The home, in the family for more than half a century, has been gutted.
“Smoke was just billowing out,” he recalled. “When it turned black, I knew we were done.”
Room by room, Mason points to pieces of a life now gone forever — including his mother-in-law’s full doll collection and his son’s military uniforms and Terry Parker High School letterman jacket.
Everything the family managed to save fits into two storage totes.
With no homeowner’s insurance — and most of the family living on disability — Mason says he feels completely hopeless.
“Without any insurance, you live day to day,” he said. “I don’t wish this on nobody. This is devastating. It’s killing me.”
He never expected the fire to start in the dryer.
“Never,” he said. “Never would’ve thought it would’ve been the dryer.”
JFRD Deputy Chief of Fire Prevention Damian Bell said what happened to the Masons is far from rare.
“Very common,” Bell said. “The combustible material is inside the device — and it takes very little heat for dryer lint to catch fire.”
Officials said failure to clean the lint filter is the number-one cause of dryer fires nationwide, according to both the U.S. Fire Administration and the National Fire Protection Association.
Officials said the most important thing can be done fairly quickly.
“The first thing is identifying where the filter is,” Bell said. “Pull it out, gather all the lint you can, and look inside the vent — some lint gets down into the machine. Use a shop vac to clean that out so it doesn’t accumulate.”
Fire officials recommend:
- Clean the lint trap before or after every load
- Check the vent hose for kinks or blockages
- Make sure the outside vent flap opens freely when the dryer runs
- Never leave the dryer running while asleep or away from home
Bell said it all comes down to forming simple habits.
“Create good habits when it comes to fire safety,” he said. “Do the same thing every time, until it becomes routine. That routine could prevent a fire.”
In the meantime, Mason and his family are staying with his daughter — crammed into a small three-bedroom apartment, unsure of what comes next.
They still return to what’s left of their home each day to care for their chickens and tend to their garden.
Even with everything gone, Mason said they are holding onto the only things the fire couldn’t take.
“We hold on to our faith, and we hold on to each other,” he said. “That’s all we have. We don’t have anything else.”
The family has started a GoFundMe to help get back on their feet.
If you would like to donate, click here.