GPS detour leads Alabama driver to help save Georgia family from house fire

The Guardian reported that Casey Sparks, of Concorde, Alabama, was driving home with his 13-year-old son, Cason, from a softball tournament in Dalton, Georgia, when his GPS kept directing him toward Lyerly, Georgia, the community where James and Larita Burke live. Dalton is about 40 miles northeast of Lyerly. Sparks said the route continued to point him toward the Burke home even though they had passed through nearby Chattanooga, Tennessee, on the way to the tournament.

“It kept pointing me in that direction,” Sparks told The Guardian. “We ended up going like it wanted us to, and I’m so thankful.”

Sparks said he saw the Burkes’ roof ablaze, with flames spreading to the rest of the house. He pulled over, told Cason to stay in their truck and call for emergency help, and ran to a side door with another passerby who had stopped after seeing the flames. Sparks later learned that the door had a lock that had previously been broken and was left unrepaired. He went through the door after encountering a teenager who, in evident panic, had grabbed a hose pot to try to put out the fire. The teenager said other people were inside, prompting Sparks to go in while the other passerby stayed with Cason.

James Burke had fallen asleep in his recliner while his wife, 12 adopted children and one grandchild slept in their beds, according to an interview he gave to television station WRCB that was cited by The Guardian. Burke said he woke only because he felt the presence of a man he did not know in his living room telling him: “Hey, you’ve got to get out of here. Your house is on fire.”

Sparks found Burke and woke him. He then carried out the Burkes’ 10-year-old granddaughter, who is blind, according to an account by independent good-news journalist Rick Karle that was cited by The Guardian. Instead of waiting for first responders, Sparks ran back inside, escorted Larita Burke to safety and did the same with many more children, including some with disabilities or special needs, Karle reported.

The blaze caused the Burkes’ house to collapse and consumed their three vehicles, according to Karle. No one was physically hurt. “If it had been another five minutes, it would’ve been a different situation,” Larita Burke later told WRCB. “We wouldn’t have made it.”

Sparks said he and Cason finished the drive back to Alabama mostly in silence after firefighters brought the blaze under control. He recalled that Cason may have said only: “Daddy, I wasn’t ready for that.” Sparks said his only reply was: “Me neither.”

Sparks said he firmly believed divine intervention placed him where he needed to be that night. “Everything that lined up for me to be there when I was – how I was – there’s no other explanation,” he said. “It was God. That’s it.”

The Burkes told WRCB it was difficult to grasp how they had lost their belongings in a fire whose cause had not been immediately determined. The couple said they had fostered more than 500 children at their home during the 15 years before the fire and that community members had rallied around them afterward. As of Monday morning, an online fundraiser organized by James Burke’s sister, Renia Evans, had generated more than $11,000 in donations for him, Larita and their children as they sought a rental house large enough for all 14 of them while their home is replaced or rebuilt.

Sparks said he had communicated with the Burkes since the fire and was relieved to see public support for them. “That family is amazing,” he said. A statement attributed to Evans read: “We will forever be grateful for Casey. … His courage and selflessness will never be forgotten.” James Burke told WRCB: “We are traumatized, of course, but you know what? We’re gonna turn this page, and we’re gonna get on with our lives because we have so much to live for. All of our babies made it out.”

Editor's Summary

A GPS detour led Casey Sparks to a burning home in Lyerly, Georgia, where he woke James Burke and helped evacuate Burke’s wife and 12 children; no one was physically hurt, though the house and three vehicles were destroyed. The family had fostered more than 500 children, and an online fundraiser had raised more than $11,000. Sparks attributed his presence at the scene to divine intervention.