Aunt of girl, 2, in fatal fire describes what happened

BEECH GROVE, Ind. (WISH) – Family members of Brianna Chislom remained in shock and disbelieve Thursday about the 2-year-old girl’s death in a home fire.

That fire happened around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in the first block of North Sixth Avenue. 

The girl’s brother, Brenden, and father were taken to the hospital with serious burns and have since been released. The cause of the fire remained under investigation Thursday. 

The girl’s great aunt, Terri Hunt, who was not in the fire, said Thursday that Brianna “is a happy-go-lucky, or was  a happy-go-lucky 2-year-old.” 

Pictures and memories are all the family has left of Brianna, or “Mimi” as family called her.

Hunt described the horrifying moments when her nephew realized their apartment was was on fire.

“He (the father) started screaming out both their names and then he got Brendan to come and Mimi had said ‘no,’ that is … she is on a ‘no’ phase, and she was ‘no’ to everything,” Hunt said.

She said the flames were spreading fast and Brendan’s arm was burning.

“So he (the father) took him out and asked somebody to watch him and he was screaming, ‘Help! Somebody help me!’”

She said the father ran back into the house for his daughter, but then the flames became too much. 

“He went out and tried busting the windows because he thought he could bust the windows by her bedroom that led into her bedroom to get her out,” Hunt said.

With severe burns on his head and limbs and glass from the window in his arm, the father had to be held back while firefighters worked. 

“He didn’t want pain medicine. He didn’t want anything. He just … all he wanted was his baby,” Hunt said.

Family said they are trying to raise money for the father because he did not have insurance but wants to make sure his daughter has a proper burial. The family set up a GoFundMe page.

“The thought of losing your child and not being able to bury your child, that has to be the worst thing in the world,” Hunt said.