CHARLOTTE — Sylvia Bertrand’s family is trying to navigate life without her.
Bertrand and her husband, Kadhim Alamiri, died after their home in east Charlotte caught fire on Feb. 8.
“You don’t expect to lose a parent that young and just be kind of thrown into a world when they didn’t have a chance to say goodbye,” said Donna Bass, Bertrand’s cousin.
Officials with the Charlotte Fire Department said firefighters arrived at the home on Donnefield Drive which had heavy smoke and flames.
Firefighters said they found extreme hoarding conditions and found Bertrand and Alamiri dead inside.
Bass said Bertrand’s adult son, Christopher, who has special needs barely escaped.
He almost couldn’t get out the house, because he had to feel for everything, couldn’t find the lights to turn on,” Bass said. “(There) was smoke everywhere. He got outside and pretty much collapsed out there. But he could hear his mother screaming in the house to help.”
Christopher lost everything in the fire.
“When I say they lost everything in this fire, there’s nothing salvageable,” Bass said.
Bass says those items are replaceable, but her family members are not.
“It’s just like you’re in a horrible nightmare and you just want to wake up,” Bass said.
The family created a GoFundMe account to help Christopher get on his feet.
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