Tulsa Day Care Plans To Rebuild After Devastating Fire

Lacie Lowry, News on 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- A Tulsa daycare owner has to send her clients to other child care providers after an early morning fire. Flames from a vacant house that caught fire spread to her home, which also serves as her daycare.

The owner is on her way back from Louisiana, but Monday her family boarded up Tyriel Demry's house and daycare center.

Tyriel's mother owns Tiffany's Wonderland, the daycare the family runs out of their house. They lost both in a fire.

"I had called a couple of my friends and they said, ‘yeah, it's really happening. And I just started crying," Tyriel said.

Shortly after 3:00a.m. a Tulsa police officer noticed an orange glow coming from Pine and Cheyenne and realized that a vacant house was on fire.

07/04/2011 Related Story: Fire Damages Tulsa Daycare, Two Homes

The flames danced over to Tyriel's home and firefighters did what they could to save it.

"Our guys were able to get inside and put it out, as you see, half the house is still standing, thank goodness. It looks like this fire was burning for quite a while," said Tim Smallwood of the Tulsa Fire Department.

"Everything is covered, the furniture is totally black, it's nasty, it stinks, all you smell is smoke," Tyriel said.

The daycare portion of the home looks fine, but the scene is unsafe for kids and has no electricity -- so it's shutdown for now.

"I never realized how much pain it actually causes people until it actually happened. I was mad that it actually happened to us, but then again, I'm happy it didn't happen to someone else. It's a lot of pain," Tyriel said.

Tyriel's family has lived here for almost ten years. She says her mother will rebound because she loves the children.

"Just the kids, the happiness of it all. To see them smiling and let them know they've got somewhere to go, it just makes her happy," Tyriel said.

Red Cross has offered to help the family and until the owner gets back in town, her kids are staying with relatives. The cause of the fire is under investigation.