Mom saves five daughters from house fire on Fourth of July

What started as a night of fun and fireworks quickly turned into a night of tragedy for a Milford family.

The family believes embers from fireworks they set off may have started the blaze.

“I thought it was going to be a night to remember because you know we had huge fireworks and this was the first time we had that big of fireworks in forever,” Abbigail Gurnsey said. 

After celebrating on July 3rd, the Gurnsey family laid down to prepare for their exciting 4th of July plans but were awakened by the frightening noise of fire alarms.

“We’re talking minutes, if I hadn’t woke up when I did, we would have all blissfully fallen asleep,” Amanda Gurnsey said. 

The mother of five quickly sprung into action as the flames grew.

Running on pure adrenaline, she went back into the house not once, not twice but three times to make sure her children were out safe.

“It’s amazing what your brain does in emergency situations you just do what you got to do,” Gurnsey said.

Amanda, Amber, Abbigail, Addelynn and Alora miraculously made it out with no injuries, but their house and belongings were gone.

For Amanda, the lose of those material objects meant nothing.

“I remember being out in the front yard and just having deep peace knowing that that house could just burn all it wanted and we were, everything i needed was right here, i had my girls and that’s all that mattered,” Gurnsey said. 

Support began to overflow for the family.

The Red Cross, boutiques, churches, family friends and even strangers began to lend a helping hand for the family in need.

The support quickly became another miracle.

“I’m overwhelmed by that, I feel intense gratitude I feel the words thank you don’t mean anything to how much gratitude I feel,” Gurnsey said.

If you’d like to help the Gurnsey family, Amanda says their space is limited so they are asking for gift cards to local restaurants, Amazon or Nebraska crossings.

She also has a Venmo set up that you can donate to. 

Amanda Gurnsey’s Venmo: @Amanda-Gurnsey