Like any average day, senior Marcus Carpenter was getting ready to leave school for the day. This time though, his aunt was there to pick him up. He knew something had to be wrong.

“I saw my aunt that I rarely see other than when something bad happens,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter’s family home caught on fire while he was at school on Aug. 24. He didn’t find out until his aunt came and picked him up from school.  He was in Psychology class when the attendance office called him down to leave.

“I was shocked by my aunt when she told me about the fire,” Carpenter said.

He lost everything from clothes to family photos. The insurance will pay for all of the things his family lost; clothes, electronics and furniture. The insurance company is also going to pay for the damage done to his house. His family is having the house remodeled, which will take up to six months or more. In the meantime, they are living in an apartment.

“[We lost] everything, because how dangerous the smoke from the fire was and the water damage,” Carpenter said.

The family that Carpenter lives with is his Grandma and Grandpa. This the second time that a home that his grandma has lived in, has been damaged by fire.

“I wanted the entire house to be remodeled so this doesn’t happen a third time,” Carpenter’s Grandmother Louise Sutton said.