Firefighters offer funds to family of victims of OKC apartment fire
Oklahoma City Fire Department efforts to recycle aluminum cans and raise cash has helped provide money to a family that lost a mother and a 4-year-old boy.
Donna Burrell, 25, died Sept. 14, the day after a fire at the London Square Apartments claimed her 4-year-old son, Zcarice Zeus Moore. Burrell’s other children, Teeshawn Harding, 18 months, and Deon Harding, 8 months, survived the fire.
Monday, fire Maj. Scott VanHorn, fire Union Local 157, presented Burrell’s aunt, Delena Burrell, with a $1,000 check from funds raised through Aluminum Cans for Burned Children, a program that started in Oklahoma City in 1995.
Retired firefighter Ed Koch works year-round to pick up cans that people have dropped off at fire stations to take to a recycling center.
“It helps children recover from fire,” Koch said.
Delena Burrell said the money would be used to help the surviving children who lost not only their mother but all their possessions.
Donna Burrell saved her two youngest children from the fire before going back into the apartment to try to save Zcarice.
Delena Burrell said if she could talk to Donna today, she would tell her, “I love you. You did a very good job. Most people wouldn’t go back in.”
“We have been going through a lot but this check is going to help out with the kids and it is going to give them what they need. What we don’t have is their mother, but we understand that,” Delena Burrell said.
Katrina Burrell, the mother of Donna Burrell, also was at fire station 31 on Monday when the check was presented. She said the surviving children are doing well considering the tragic circumstances.
“They have a lot of love,” Katrina Burrell said.
Aluminum cans can be dropped off at any Oklahoma City fire station to benefit the program.