Design 21: Social Design Network

History

Della Hines is a burn survivor. She understands the raw pain that burn victims live with every day. She experienced the horror of the unthinkable. In 1991, a fire devoured her home and claimed the lives of two of her three children. It is a day burned into her mind forever ~ a day that changed her life forever.

The fire was caused by an electrical short in a lamp cord. At the time, Della lived in an apartment, and smoke detectors were not properly installed. They were installed too low on the wall, making the smoke detectors ineffective. By the time smoke traveled from the ceiling down to the alarm, it was too late. She was trapped and disoriented from the intense heat produced by poisonous, gases filling the room.

Della's little girl Mary, age 2, was sleeping in her crib in the next room. Della couldn't get to Mary because the smoke was too thick. Nicholas, age 4, became frightened and crawled under his bed to hide. Firefighters couldn't find him. Jamie, Della's oldest, managed to crawl next to her mother under the window and they were rescued, but not before sustaining second and third degree burns and significant inhalation injuries. While Della was comatose in one hospital, Jamie struggled for her life in another. Neither was expected to live. Nicholas and Mary were buried without their mother and sister present.

A healthy survival gave Della the inspiration to educate children and parents. She has also helped other burn survivors alleviate some of their pain through proper and easily accessible assistance. In 1996, Della founded the People's Burn Foundation (PBF) in memory of her children, Nicholas and Mary Lorch.