Several fundraisers have been organized to help the family of a 3-year-old boy, Kaiden Strubberg, who died Oct. 11 in a High Ridge mobile home fire.
The inside of the mobile home and its contents were destroyed by the fire, officials said.
Community support
A new restaurant in High Ridge called Johnny’s Hideout, 367 High Ridge Blvd., is collecting clothes and cash for Kaiden’s mother, Sabrina Shaw, who works at the bar and restaurant, manager Ashley Stoff said.
Stoff said people are asked to donate small or medium clothing items for Shaw, and 8/10 and 5/6 sizes for her two other children, who are 8 and 5.
Stoff said Shaw is like family, so those who work there wanted to help her.
Schmoll’s 8 Ball, 4545 Gravois Road, in High Ridge, will hold a benefit from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, to help Shaw, who also worked at that bar, bartender Haley Pizzo said.
The event will include 50/50 raffles, a silent auction and a dart tournament. In addition, 15 percent of the proceeds from all sales will go to the family, according to the event flyer.
Rock Memorial American Legion, 910 Montebello Road, in Imperial also will hold an event to benefit Shaw at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26. Donations of clothes, toys and money will be collected, according to a flyer for the event.
Shaw’s sister-in-law, Jessica Strubberg, has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for Shaw and her family. As of Monday, Oct. 17, a total of $7,274 had been raised.
“Kaiden was such a sweet and loving boy! It is not fair for him to be taken from us,” Jessica Strubberg said on the GoFundMe description.
She could not be reached for comment.
The fire
The High Ridge Fire Protection District got a call at 7:44 a.m. Oct. 11 after a neighbor called 911 to report the fire at the mobile home in the 3100 block of Diamond Drive, Chief John Barton said.
He said firefighters arrived at 7:49 a.m. and found a large amount of smoke and fire coming from the windows and front doors. In addition, the mother was outside screaming that her child was still inside.
Barton said crews found the child at 7:58 a.m., but he was deceased.
Several neighbors tried to put out the fire and save Kaiden, and when the first unit arrived on the scene, three people were in the house, Barton said.
“They were obviously trying to make their way into that back bedroom, but there was no way they could get back there because of the conditions,” he said.
Barton said a bystander who tried to put out the fire before crews arrived suffered smoke inhalation and was taken by North Jefferson County Ambulance District to an area hospital.
Barton said that bystander got stuck in the house at one point because the front door closed behind him and it had a child safety device on the doorknob. Eventually, though, the man’s brother opened the front door to let him out.
“Obviously, we are going to say that you should not go into a burning building,” Barton said. “For this very reason, this could have been more than one fatality because somebody was temporarily trapped inside the home. But there’s a child inside so we certainly understand why people felt the need to act and we appreciate their courage.”
Before firefighters arrived, Shaw and her 5-year-old had made it outside the home, and the child was transported by North Jefferson County Ambulance District to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis for smoke inhalation.
According to a message Shaw posted on her Facebook page, her son was discharged from the hospital on Oct. 14.
The 8-year-old was not home during the fire.
Barton said the state Fire Marshal’s Office and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the fire.
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Grant Bissell said on Monday that the cause of the fire is undetermined.
“Likely the fire cause will remain undetermined,” a crime scene analyst said. “We cannot determine a source of the fire.”
The home did not have working smoke detectors, Barton said.
He said the district provides and installs free smoke detectors if residents call 636-677-3371.
The Saline Valley, Eureka and Fenton fire protection districts helped with the call.