Skiatook Football Team Helps Player, Family After Losing Home To Fire

The state championship-bound Skiatook football team is chipping in to help a teammate whose home burned down Monday evening.

The ashes of Faith and Oather Anglen's home were still smoldering Thursday and the reality of it all was just starting to sink in.

“We lost 45 years of a lot of things,” Faith said. “Home is full of love, that's what's hard, not possessions, just your own place to be.”

The Anglen's had called the house their home for 15 years. It's also where the couple's daughter, son-in-law and five grandchildren lived.

“I'm just glad we're all out safe,” said Anglen.

Faith was cooking dinner Monday night when the house began to smell of smoke.

She said her family joked that she was burning the meal, but when she looked out the kitchen window, Faith saw a fire consuming the back porch and the patio.

The flames, she said, took control of her house within minutes.

“The flames were 12-14 foot high back there,” she said.

The pot Faith was using that night still sits on the now burned up stove.

The china and furniture - passed down from her mother and grandmother - are gone, just like the presents that were wrapped and already sitting under the family's new Christmas tree.

“It's still material things and so it'll all be OK,” she said.

This isn't the first time Faith and her husband have faced this kind of adversity, a fire destroyed their home back in the 70s.

“But we were young and resilient and it didn't hit me like this,” Faith said.

And it didn't hit her like a house fire in the late 90s that took the life of her 9-year-old grandson.

“The light went out when we lost him,” she said. “I'm trying to pull blessing out of this and that's what's getting me through.”

Over at Skiatook's football stadium, practicing for the state championship game is a welcomed distraction for Faith's 15-year-old grandson, Lane Ervin, though he said losing everything left him with questions.

“How it happened and why it happened to us,” Ervin said.

While his teammates can't answer those questions, they want to support him.

“If you can help somebody, you should help them,” senior football player, Baylor Jenkins said.

During a community spirit rally Thursday night the football players will be raising money for Lane, letting him know they're by his side whether on and off the field.

“I know that my team and my town have my back, so it'll come through,” Ervin said.

The football players will start collecting money at the stadium at 7 p.m. The community rally starts at 8 p.m.

An online fundraising site has been set up for the Anglens and their grandchildren, ages 13, 14, 15, 22 and 28.

“I'm humbled,” Faith said. “It's hard to put it in words; I don't know how to thank all these people.”

The Anglens were told the fire was likely an electrical issue.

Faith said just months before the fire the couple canceled their homeowner's insurance due to increased premium rates.

Their children said they had no idea otherwise they would have paid the bill.