BUCKNER - Glenda Kirkpatrick of Buckner lost almost everything but the clothes on her back in a house fire Tuesday night but to hear her tell it, she really isn't in need of a thing.

"God's already given me everything I need. I've got God, my family and my friends," Kirkpatrick said. "And that's all I need. I'm just glad no one was hurt."

Kirkpatrick was at a neighbors' house babysitting when the fire started sometime after 6 p.m. She had offered to watch Zachary Gray, 2, so that he wouldn't have to travel the icy roads as his father went to pick up his mother when she got off work in Du Quoin.

"This one may have saved my life," Kirkpatrick said as she hugged the boy tightly Wednesday morning. "If I hadn't been watching him I would have been at home when the fire started. I may not have gotten out."

Gray's parents, Bradley and Patricia, had just rounded a corner near their house at about 7:50 p.m. when they saw smoke. The closer they got, the more alarmed they became.

"When we got to our driveway, I saw a window on the northwest side of her house blow out and flames started shooting out the window," Bradley Gray said. "All our neighbors were running across the yard because they were afraid she was still in there."

Firefighters got to the house within minutes of the call, but the house was fully engulfed in flames by that time, Gray said.

Firefighters from four departments assisted the Buckner Fire Department, but efforts were somewhat hampered by icy conditions, Gray said.

"The hydrant closest to the house was frozen, so they had to pump water from a hydrant down the road," he said.

Kirkpatrick, a registered nurse at Westside Care Center in West Frankfort, could only stand by and watch as the house where she lived for 33 years was destroyed by fire.

"Everyone was screaming and hugging. Half the people in the neighborhood, including some of the firemen who came, spent time at my house or in my yard when my three sons were growing up. We are very fortunate. This is a wonderful neighborhood," Kirkpatrick said.

Gray was able to save Kirkpatrick's Chevy Lumina, affectionately called "Lulu," while a few important documents also survived the fire.

Other than that, Kirkpatrick, whose husband, Lloyd, died four years ago, has only what she was wearing at the time of the fire.

"I've got the boots, pants, shirt and jacket I was wearing, and a pair of glasses because I was going to read Zachary some books. Even my purse was in there," she said.

She's not sure what started the fire but said she had a furnace inspection recently, had relatively new wiring, does not burn candles and did not have portable heaters running when she left home.

"Everything's unplugged when I walk out the door," she said.

Kirkpatrick, whose house was fully insured, spent Wednesday replacing medicines lost in the fire and securing a new driver's license.

"I only slept for about three hours. I couldn't shut off the thoughts in my head. But I'm looking at today as the first day of the rest of my life. I plan to rebuild right here and hopefully I'll be in by summer. With God's help, and friends and family, I'll make it," she said.

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