Marie Phillips is looking for somewhere for her and her seven children to live after their Woodside Street home at Hayes was destroyed by fire the day after Christmas. A GoFundMe account has been set up for the family, and Phillips said her main goal is to keep her family together.

According to family friend David Nolte, Phillips’s children range in age from eight months to 18; one is in college and six are at home. The family was in one part of the mobile home early last Tuesday morning when one of the younger children spotted fire coming from the bedroom area.

Nolte said Phillips grabbed a fire extinguisher to try to put the blaze out, but the flames just wouldn’t go down. Soon, he said the windows of the mobile home began to melt, all while Phillips frantically tried to make sure all the children were safely out of the home.

“At that point, all they could do was just stand outside and watch the trailer burn,” Nolte said. They family had lived there for 1...