Teen deals with tragedy by giving back

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - One Hoosier teenager has suffered more grief and loss than most of people do in a lifetime. Now she's using what she's learned from those experiences to help others.

Ashley Alvarado was eight years old in November of 1998 when a monstrous fire devoured her southeast side home. Alvarado was in an upstairs bedroom.

"There was like a little roof outside the window and my mom told us to step out. And that was the last time I remember seeing her," Alvarado said softly.

Her mother and two younger sisters died. Alvarado suffered third degree burns on her right arm and was in a coma for a month. Weeks later, she learned of her mother's death.

"My grandmother was the one that told me," she said. "And right when she told me, I just crawled up in a ball in my chair and cried my eyes out."

The community opened their hearts to Alvarado and her two surviving sisters. Among those who reached out to help: The People's Burn Foundation . An invitation to Brave Hearts, an Indiana camp for burn survivors, was life changing.

"It's just beyond words how much they have helped me," Alvarado said. "They really have helped me be what I am today."

What she is today is a confident, college-bound young woman who no longer hides her burns beneath long sleeves. She now volunteers for the foundation.

Stacey Hissong was one of Alvarado's camp counselors year after year. She said she's immensely proud of Alvarado and her sisters.

"We like to take them out and make different events special for them because they don't have their mother there," Hissong said.

So now Alvarado is giving back by serving as a counselor at the camp she's grown to love.

"They're a family to me, and everything that they've done I'm so grateful for it," said Alvarado.