Handmade lingerie meant for charity burns in Texas house fire

A Texas woman escaped injury Wednesday after a fire gutted her home and destroyed thousands of dollars’ worth of handmade lingerie she’d just brought back from West Africa to sell for charity.

“It’s one of those moments I have to kind of put my hands up and thank God I’m still alive,” Tara Smith told NBCDFW.com.

The sound of the smoke alarm startled Smith from sleep about 2 a.m. Flames were shooting through a vent in the living room of her home in Irving, northwest of Dallas. She tried to put out the fire, but it spread quickly, she said. Smith managed to escape from the home, suffering minor burns.

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“I’m not sure where I will go from here,” Smith told NBCDFW.com. “Everything is like burned.”

See the story on NBCDFW.com

Fire officials have not determined the fire’s cause.

Just four hours earlier, Smith had returned home from a month-long mission trip to Africa. She returned home with thousands of dollars’ worth of lingerie handmade by villagers in West Africa. Smith planned to sell the clothing through a nonprofit and fair trade business. Money raised would have helped fund development projects and employ seamstresses in Cameroon. Smith said her goal is to help women worldwide to start businesses to sustain their families.

“We are still in shock,” Smith’s mother, Lynette Nadeau, told NBCDFW.com.

Smith stayed hopeful, fighting back tears as she spoke with NBCDFW.com. 

“I’m just holding on to my faith right now,” Smith said.

NBCDFW.com’s Kendra Lyn and NBC News’ Sevil Omer contributed to this report.

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Family says someone has been in attic stealing lingerie

Eyewitness News received a call from a family who says someone has been creeping in their attic to steal lingerie. We checked and police are investigating it as a burglary.

The Martin family filed a police report this weekend. They claim someone has broken into their home twice since Friday.

Rachel Martin and her family say they are afraid to be in their own house and say they haven’t slept in weeks.

“When I do sleep, I wake up terrified from bad dreams, from thinking that people are going to break in through my attic and rape me,” said Martin.

The Martins say they’ve been hearing footsteps in the attic since August. Since then they say they’ve noticed unlocked doors, their beds smelling like someone else, and missing lingerie.

“The next morning my underwear would be gone from on top of the clothes basket. Two weeks later it would be folded up dirty in my underwear drawer. They also took my sister’s corsets, and then literally hung them back up in her closet.

Inside the attic you can see a hole in the dry wall dividing the apartments allowing anyone access from the attic to all the apartments. In a picture the family sent to Eyewitness News you can even see the attic of the neighbor’s apartment

Managers boarded up the attic on Friday. The family says they found it kicked in Saturday, and heard someone in the attic again on Sunday. When they called the police the Martins say officers found a pair of camouflage pants up there too. The police report says officers also found a black cellphone and a CD face plate.

Monday Rachel passed out fliers to neighbors letting them know what happened, with hopes someone will get caught.

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