Support grows for family injured in fatal Tamina house fire

Community support grew Saturday for the family injured in a Tamina fire on Friday that claimed the lives of three children.

Siblings Terrance “TJ” Mitchell, 13, Kaila Mitchell, 6, and Kyle Mitchell, 5, perished in the blaze. Their brother, 10-year-old Adrian Mitchell, survived.

Others recovering include Bobby Johnson, 59, pastor of the Thergood Memorial Church of God in Christ in Willis, and his 56-year-old wife, Carrie, as well as the couple’s son, Jarvis Johnson, 34.

Bobby Johnson and Jarvis Johnson were critically injured as they worked through flames and broke windows trying to rescue the four children, who were trapped behind a wall of fire on the secondfloor of one residence on the homestead.

The deaths and injuries of three generations of a founding Tamina family shook the south Montgomery County community, which was settled more than a century ago by formerly enslaved people shortly after the Civil War.

The blaze started about 4 a.m. in the two-story house at the back of the Johnson property and quickly spread to a onestory family home at the front. Both homes were engulfed by the time firefighters arrived.

The Montgomery County Fire Marshal’s Office has not announced a preliminary cause of the blaze.

Pastor Prince Bryant II, who leads the Toliver Memorial Church of God in Christ in Willis, said a benefit service is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. May 19 at CRM City Cathedral Church — The Woodlands campus.

There are no immediate prayer vigils at the John-

son homestead or the church.

“The family just is not prepared at this time to do any kind of gathering,” Bryant said Saturday.

Funeral arrangements remain in progress.

Friends of the children’s mother, April Johnson Mitchell, and other supporters have collected more than $65,000 in one day through online fundraisers.

There are at least three GoFundMe campaigns to benefit the family.

The largest is arranged by a woman who said she worked with Mitchell briefly at Memorial Hermann and worked for several years at the hospital system with Mitchell’s sister. That campaign has raised more than $43,000 of its $300,000 goal through the gifts of more than 700 people as of 2 p.m. Saturday. The organizer said the money will be used for funerals and to help the family rebuild their lives.

Another fundraiser has amassed more than $17,000 of its $50,000 goal from nearly 300 donors as of 2 p.m. Saturday. The organizer is a childhood friend of Mitchell and her siblings.

A third GoFundMe campaign was posted by a friend of Mitchell’s cousin. That campaign has raised more than $6,660 from 50 people and has a $100,000 goal.