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A grandfather with an oxygen tank was one of 11 people who made their way from a fiery Jefferson Road inferno early Saturday morning, according to family members and witnesses. “I woke up when I smelled smoke,” Tammy Eaton, who then grabbed the oxygen tank and helped her father to safety, said. “We didn’t have time to grab anything,” Eaton said after returning to salvage a few small items Saturday afternoon. Dave Ellis, 71; Sam and Tammy Eaton; four children, Ashley and Courtney Hall, Jacob Bixler and Megan Eaton all escaped with aunt Kim Sovila and cousin James Sovila and baby Curtis Hall, said Megan Eaton. She said her friend Paige Santo was also staying at the house for the night and escaped safely as well. Tammy Eaton said they lost almost everything when their rental home burned after a fire at an unoccupied home next door jumped to their house. Eaton rented from DJC Properties and the identity of the owner of the property at 6307 Jefferson Road was unavailable Saturday evening. “We woke up to people knocking on the door (of the home across the street) and I thought it was our house (that was on fire),” Andy Derylak, who then opened his window to see a fireball at 6307 Jefferson Road, said. “The burning home was totally engulfed. It was a bad fire,” Derylak said while sitting on the front porch of his home several hours later. He said he called 911, but others had beaten him to the punch. The fire started before the rain began, but it got ugly pretty quickly. “It was a torrential downpour when they were fighting that fire,” he said. The unoccupied home (6307) burned to the ground, but firefighters were able to save the front of the 6303 Jefferson Road home. The siding of an adjacent home, about 100 feet from 6307 Jefferson Road, melted because of the high temperatures. Ashtabula Township fire reports indicate firefighters arrived on the scene at 5 a.m. to find both buildings burning. “Heavy embers were blowing onto other structures north of 6303,” reports stated. Firefighters sprayed water on 6303 Jefferson Road and took a line in to the second floor of the burning home but had to pull firefighters out as the situation deteriorated, reports showed.

But the Exodus Foundation's dedicated founder Reverend Bill Crews is refusing to give up, saying closing down was "unthinkable". Mr Crews started the charity after being ordained as minister of the Ashfield Uniting Church in 1986. It now serves 400 people for breakfast and lunch each day at its Loaves and Fishes restaurant, as well as providing counselling, medical care and other support to disadvantaged Sydneysiders. "We can't shut the doors because people climb over the fences to get there," Mr Crews said. "Homeless people come and cuddle up to the very stones of the church." Mr Crews is still scrambling together enough money to make up for a $1.5 million budget shortfall to meet the $5 million it costs to run the organisation annually. "That's so we have $1 in the bank," he said. "We have been through a terrible time. "I have had to ring people to ask and a lot of them have lost money. We'd ring people and ask for money and end up counselling them instead." Rev Crews had already had to restructure the foundation last year, then the economic crisis hit. It was followed by fundraising efforts for the Victorian bushfires earlier this year.
 * A SYDNEY charity begun more than two decades ago when homeless children came to sleep on church pews is struggling to survive after being hit with the double whammy of the economic crisis and Victorian bushfires. **

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