A youth group from Anchor Church in Houston, Texas, is thanking God after they escaped from their van that caught fire while they were on their way to summer camp.
On Tuesday, the van went up in flames with two adults and 11 children inside. The van was on I-610 at Wayside, headed to Kerrville, Texas. It caught fire just minutes after leaving Deer Park High School. The church's youth pastor and his mother, a former school bus driver, were the vehicle's drivers.
"Faith has to play a part in it. We believed, and we prayed over those kids," Jordin Williams, a mother of two of the youth campers, told KHOU 11.
While some church members noticed a strange smell in the van shortly before the fire, Williams said they did not realize the van was producing the odor.
"He said it smells like barbecue or something and like, something must be on fire, they didn't think it was their van," Williams told the outlet.
Fortunately, no one in the van was hurt, and the campers eventually arrived at summer camp in one piece.
Anchor Church, previously known as Sandbox Church, described itself as "a community of marketplace professionals, both married and single, with a desire to develop a deep and authentic faith, build rock-solid families and impact the community around us."
Lead pastor Brent Phillip, who founded the church, has six locations in Texas, according to his website.
According to the Houston Fire Department, an electrical issue is believed to have caused the fire.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers a variety of safety tips to drivers as they travel through the summer, including vehicle checks on things like tires, the coolant system, oil fluid level, batteries, lights, or "any damage or conditions that may need attention."
"The summertime months have proven to be especially deadly for children when it comes to hot car deaths. Heatstroke in vehicles often occurs when a child is left unattended in a parked vehicle or manages to get into an unattended vehicle," officials advised.
"Never leave children alone in the car—not even for a few minutes. Vehicles heat up quickly. Even if the outside temperature is in the 70s and the windows are cracked, the temperature in a vehicle can rapidly reach deadly levels. A child's body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult's."
Photo courtesy: ©Unsplash/maxkuk
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
