Houseboat owners at the Jackson County Park are more united than ever following the deadly boat dock fire.
“Our park is small. It doesn’t matter if you’re on “A” dock, if you’re on the transit dock, or if you’re on “B” dock. We’re all a family. This is just devastating,” said Dock “A” resident Julie Jackson.
Jackson says they’re all a family, and now they feel a tremendous loss. She witnessed the heartbreaking fire Sunday night. She hopes to have a rescue boat docked nearby in case a fire breaks out again. “We have a rescue squad – I do believe they did show up. We need that boat here. We need that boat docked here ready to go,” said Jackson.
She and her neighbors in the meantime have developed a way to account for each other.
“We are making individual preparations on our dock to ensure that we can get everybody off of the dock that is on it at the time. From now forward, every slip will have a flag. If you are at home, put your flag up,” said Jackson.
The houseboat community is also close with KC’s BBQ.
Co-owner Jennifer Sanders and her husband have remained closed to paying customers, but they’ve stayed open to feed first responders, and displaced families.
“Well you know, we kind of just got in work mode. We had to jump in and do what we had to do. So it’s one of those things that we really had not processed yet,” said Sanders.
Sanders says she’s also seen so many other organizations reaching out to help. “It’s just been really amazing to see how close we are as a community,” said Sanders.
The Red Cross will continue their efforts in making sure each individual affected by the dock boat fire will get the help that they need.