While on the road last month, a trucker from Georgia got a call no one should ever get. Thomas Reese, the owner and main driver of NYOG & Sons LLC in Rex, Georgia, was on the road in Maryland when he learned his wife and four children died of smoke inhalation when their house was destroyed by fire.
Thomas Reese’s children who died in a recent fire while he was on the road
Reese’s wife Quaniece, and his four children, 8-year-old India, 5-year-old Jacob, 3-year-old Thomas, and 18-month-old Shirley died in an electrical fire that began while the family slept.
“I got a call around 8:30 that morning from a detective,” Reese told an Atlanta TV station. “He told me that my family had perished in a fire.” Reese said he cried during the entire 12-hour drive from Maryland back home.
Reese told Fox 5 he was not financially prepared for a funeral for five members of his family. Now, the trucking community and others are rallying to help Reese. Apex Capital created a crowd-sourced fundraising page to assist Reese.
“I’ve been basically sitting in a hotel room, staring at a wall, crying,” said Reese. “It has been torture. I wish I would have went with them.”