Edgewood Road Fire: 14-Member Family Displaced, 'Lost Everything'

A large family led by what nieces described as a kind, generous matriarch is without a home today after a fire took over their Edgewood Road home last night.

responded to an upstairs fire at 2547 Edgewood Road at 11:17 Wednesday night. Though initial reports said that 20 people were in the home at the time of the fire, resident Natalie Conner told Beachwood Patch today that 14 people lived in the five-bedroom home.

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She listed five children, three teens and 6 adults, all related, who are now sleeping on the floor at a family member’s house. “We lost everything,” said Conner. "We don't know where we go from here."

No one was injured in the fire, which the family said started in an upstairs bedroom because of an electrical issue.

Beachwood Fire said that the cause of the fire is still under investigation. A damage estimate has not yet been determined.

Five of the children are foster-children-turned-adoptees with special needs who Patricia Gaines took into her home.

Gaines, a widowed mother with five biological children of her own, also took in her two nieces before they turned 18.

Now an adult, one niece, Robbie Green, who lived in the home until last night, spoke highly of Gaines.

“She is the matriarch of this family,” said Green, sitting on the ground in a lawn across the street, watching crews board up the windows of her home. “We have Sunday dinner every week. When we’re fighting, she sits us down. She holds everyone together. She is the backbone.”

A neighbor has stepped in to help the family, creating a donation account at Key Bank and offering to coordinate donations at her home. Other neighbors stopped by the home this afternoon, leaving bottled water, snacks and other supplies for the family and expressing sympathy.