Scott determined
After surviving a deadly fire, 14-year-old earned a scholarship offer
Zykee Scott still has nightmares from the deadly fire that altered his family’s life forever, a reality hidden behind the teen’s comforting smile and quiet demeanor.
Zykee, his parents, Charles and Tyhara, and two younger brothers lost everything in the January 2022 Fairmount rowhouse fire. Yet when they think of the 12 neighbors in the unit above who lost their lives, gratitude is the emotion that wins out.
“We get a second chance, take advantage of whatever you want to do,” Charles tells his sons often.
Zykee, the oldest brother of four, has carried himself differently since the incident. He wants to be a professional football player. The incoming freshman at Imhotep Charter acted on the words of his father and buckled down on his craft.
And in just a year, it showed. Charles Scott said he asks his kids to take goals seriously after the family escaped a fire, which destroyed their home and killed 12 people in January 2022.
The 14-year-old linebacker was offered his first football scholarship in May to Penn State, getting an early jump on the recruiting process. Zykee, a recent Bache-Martin School graduate, also prioritizes his studies on the same level as football. In the last two years, he has made the honor roll and earned an academic award at the school’s graduation.
“When you say you want to play football, you want to go to school, be an engineer or an accountant, take it serious because you’ve got to look at the people that didn’t make it out — you’ve got to,” Charles said. “It’s not like you’re living for them, but you can be.”
Charles said his son could have taken a different path after the traumatic experience, but instead showed remarkable resilience in dealing with the situation.
“It was that moment when I realized this is what I really want to do with my life,” Zykee said of receiving a football scholarship offer. “It meant a lot to me, and I wanted to keep working so I could change my family’s life.”
‘Thank God we’re still here’
On Jan. 4, 2022, Charles worked out with his sons on the Bache-Martin field after school. They ran through football drills and walked back to their home on North 23rd Street right before dinner.
Around 6:30 a.m., flames pierced through the dark winter sky in Fairmount. Tyhara, who was 18 weeks pregnant with her fourth son, Shiro, was awakened by the smell of smoke and screams coming from upstairs.She immediately shook her partner to get up and ran to the bedroom next to hers where Zykee and brothers Charles and Miles were fast asleep. It took three agonizing minutes as smoke consumed the air to get themselves, their children, and a 5-year-old boy who lived above them who was standing in the hallway of the apartment, out of the burning building.
While escaping through the front door, burning debris came down from the ceiling. One hit Charles’ head and another fell on Zykee’s left arm. A neighbor next door took the Scott family in while they waited for an ambulance. They were treated for burns, Tyhara said, and to this day will still apply ointment to protect their scars.
The Scott family learned hours later after the fire that sisters Rosalee McDonald, 33, Virginia Thomas, 30, and Quinsha White, 18, and nine children from the ages 2 to 16 did not survive.
It devastated them. They were grieving the loss of friends, neighbors, and classmates while also coping with having all their personal belongings destroyed. But no item could compare to losing a loved one, Charles said.
The emotional damage that followed, though, is an area they’re still navigating through.
“We want to start therapy back up because my sons still have reactions,” Tyhara said. “They like to sleep under the bed, they still hate loud noises, and they get triggered if I have the stove on and the little fire that’s on from cooking.”
The family moved in with Tyhara’s grandmother in the Logan neighborhood while they searched for a new home. They stayed in her basement for about four to five months before moving out to the Northeast.
Community members rallied together to start a GoFundMe for the Scotts. The Bache-Martin School, Zykee’s football team, the North Philly Blackhawks, and community activist Anton Moore, of Unity in the Community, also contributed donations and supplies, including clothing, to help replace some of those items.
Zykee took one month away from practice with the Blackhawks, a team he has played with since age 10. He described the tragedy as “crazy” and said he was “shocked.” It was difficult for him to process the situation, and he wanted to be there for his younger brothers, who felt similar emotions.
“It was kind of being like our own therapists,” Zykee said. “We talk to each other, help each other, talk about how grateful we should be, and just thank God that we’re still here.”
Ian McCutcheon, who was Zykee’s seventh and eighth-grade math teacher at Bache-Martin, was taken back by the way the middle schooler interacted with his little brothers. Once they returned to school, the two would ask for Zykee if they felt anxious or triggered. His presence calmed them, and they felt protected.
“Dealing with certainly so much of his own stuff, Zykee was so kind, focused, and supportive to his brothers,” McCutcheon said. “Even in a school setting, he was very willing and able to kind of be called on to help them.”
Zykee matured, immensely, in a year. Charles would remind his son to never forget his goal and know that while these situations can make or break a person, it all depends on how you react to it.
“We [have] always been a close family,” Charles said. “It just made you realize that none of this stuff matters, that’s what I try tell my kids, none of it matters, like $1,000 sneakers, $300 jeans, none of it matters. As long as you got your family, that’s what matters. You’ll never know what’s going to happen the next day, so you [have] to live each day and bring the best out of you.”
‘You’ve got to put in the work’
Zykee wasn’t the most skilled football player when he started, but Nah Muhammad, a trainer and Imhotep’s defensive backs coach noticed his willingness to work. It was a quality most 10-year-olds didn’t possess.
“He would do it with a lot of intensity,” said Muhammad, who has been training Zykee for about five years. “He never was slouching or moving slowly. He gave it his all in every exercise. Zykee is one of my favorite dawgs because he’s real humble, he’s quiet, [doesn’t] complain and comes to work, which is hard.”
When Zykee returned back to practice, he was looking for a sense of normalcy. Spending his time on the field or at school, he said, distracted him from the worries and stress following the incident.
After each practice, Zykee would work out at the gym with his dad. It was common for them to go together to get an extra session in, but Zykee’s approach was different: He had a redefined purpose of what he wanted.
“That’s enough to make somebody not work out or put football on the standby,” Muhammad said. “That wasn’t the case with Zykee. After that happened, he was still coming to work. I was amazed by that. That shows the dedication and determination that they had as a family, and Zykee had about his athletics.”
Zykee frequently talked to Charles about playing in the NFL. It’s a dream he sought to pursue from the beginning. His dad, however, was realistic in telling him, “A lot of kids say that, but you’ve got to put in the work.’
One day, Zykee asked Muhammad about the recruiting process. He assured Zykee to be patient, keep doing the work, and the offers will come with time.
Muhammad knew Penn State’s new defensive line coach Deion Barnes, a Philly native and graduate of Northeast High School who scouts the area. He impressed on Barnes that Zykee is a player he’ll want to have on his radar in the future, emphasizing that Zykee has quick speed and movement for his age. It wasn’t long till Barnes caught a glimpse of 6-foot-1 Zykee and was amazed. Shortly after, Zykee received his first college scholarship offer.
“I don’t think he realized at the time what the coach was saying to him,” Muhammad said. “He was like, ‘I’m offering you an opportunity to play at Penn State University.’ Zykee kind of looked like, ‘Huh?’ So I’m like, ‘He’s offering you a scholarship to go to school for free and play football.’
“I’ve never seen Zykee smile so hard. He had this big smile, it looked like he wanted to jump up and give the coach a hug that’s how excited he was. I wish I could have recorded it because all that hard work paid off. By being so young, he really was shocked that could happen to him. It was an amazing moment.”
Zykee has many desires he hopes to achieve in high school. He wants to earn All-American status, excel academically, take advantage of Imhotep’s STEM programs, and eventually head off to a fouryear university that can help pave the way to a professional football career.
While there’s much time before then, his former teachers, coaches, and family expect nothing less from a 14-year-old who has faced adversity head-on.
“He could be one of the top players in Pennsylvania,” Muhammad said. “I really believe he has the potential to be a great football player in the state of Pennsylvania when he graduates from high school.”
Added Charles: “It just goes back to when you work hard and stay the course [and] things paid off. Everybody’s journey is different. This is his journey. This was meant for him.”