2 TRAGEDIES, 2 MONTHS APART

Home, Family's Mother Lost,

But Millers Are Still Together

Gofundme Drive Set Up To Help Dad, 3 Kids

By JENNIFER HILL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

PITTSFIELD – The carbon monoxide detector went off first, waking Richard Miller up last Tuesday, May 14, at about 1:30 a.m.

Then, four smoke detectors on the first floor below him sounded, one after the other, as Richard bolted out of bed. He hurried into the hallway and as he rounded the corner, he saw the wall was glowing red.

“The top of the wall was burned through. I knew I couldn’t put the fire out in time,” he said.

The smoke alarms had awakened his three children, Brandon, 14, Hunter, 10 and Izabella, 8. They met their dad in the hallway, and together the family ran out of the house, unharmed.

“But then I did what you’re never supposed to do – run back in a burning house to get something,” Richard said. “I had to get my wife’s ashes, the urn they’re in.”

Richard’s wife, Sharron, died only two months ago, on Feb. 13, after battling cancer for two years.