Fire destroyed their home. Kennewick family still gives thanks

It wasn’t the Stith family’s first visit to a Kennewick fire station.

Richard Stith, his wife Melissa and their three children had toured the Auburn Street building on more than one occasion.

Their latest visit to the station was special.

It came slightly more than a week after four firefighters saved the life of the family’s youngest, Dominic.

It was hard for Richard to explain what meeting the men was like, he said.

“I was excited to meet them and we all pretty much cried,” he said.

The Saturday meeting was the first time the family has seen the firefighters since the early evening hours of Nov. 7, when flames broke out in their manufactured home.

The fire started when Melissa Stith, who was in the bathroom and their two other boys, ages 4 and 6, accidentally knocked a candle off of a table, Richard Stith said.

The candle started a fire that cut across the living room. Dominic, 2, was asleep in his bedroom down the hall.

By the time the boys alerted Melissa Stith to the fire, Dominic was already behind a wall of flames.

She and the boys were able to get out of the home, but Dominic still was inside.

Melissa Stith tried twice to get Dominic out, but she couldn’t get past the smoke.

Firefighters arrived on the scene and crawled through the home to find the boy.

They carried him outside, performed CPR and got him breathing.

Dominic and Melissa Stith were taken to Trios Southridge Hospital, and then flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Two days after the fire ravaged their home, Dominic was breathing without assistance.

A video the family shared showed the boy drinking juice.

“There’s Dominic everybody,” Richard Stith said in the video. “Alive and kicking and drinking juice and back to his old normal self. His voice is still hoarse, but he’s there.”

The family members made a complete recovery, Richard Stith said at the fire station visit.

Capt. Tim Harkins, along with firefighters Tony Jorgensen, Shane Webb and Mason Osborn, gave the boys toy trucks, let Dominic use the hose and helped the kids behind the wheel of a fire truck.

The Stiths brought the crew homemade lasagna, cookies and hugs.

“We will be forever grateful for these men putting their lives on the line,” the family wrote on their YouCaring fundraising page. “We love this little boy and are so thankful. It is beyond words.”

The family is spending the holiday with family in Benton City while they look for a new home.

The group of firefighters is taking a few days off before returning to work Thanksgiving Day.

If you’d like to help the Stiths, you can donate either at through the YouCaring page, bit.ly/StithFamily, their GoFundMe account, bit.ly/Stithfundraiser, or at Numerica Credit Union in Richard Stith’s name.

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 10:35 AM with the headline "Fire destroyed their home. Kennewick family still gives thanks."