A 12-year-old girl got her little sister out of a burning Lexington home Thursday night after a candle fell onto a bed, then called her grandmother and police from outside while firefighters worked to free her great-grandmother, who was trapped inside. Gracie Hoyle said her 8-year-old sister lit the candle because she needed to see, and then dropped it on the bed, igniting the blaze at the family's home off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The fire broke out on August 20 at the family's home in Lexington, according to Queen City News, which first reported the rescue. Gracie was inside when a smoke alarm sounded, and she got her sister out before trying to reach her great-grandmother, 89-year-old Loretta Evans, after learning Evans was struggling to breathe from the smoke. Gracie could not reach her through the smoke-filled hallway, the outlet reported, so she left the house and called her grandmother and police.
The Lexington Fire Department confirmed that crews rescued a trapped person from the home. Evans, who was unable to get out of bed on her own, was eventually pulled from a rear room after family members broke a window and five people worked together to remove her, per the same report. Firefighters placed her on a stretcher, and EMS took her to the hospital, where she remains with smoke inhalation.
A Recent Fall Left Her Bedridden
Evans, who has COPD, had fractured her upper femur about a month before the fire, according to the report, leaving her unable to move on her own when the smoke alarm went off. Fire officials have not yet determined the cause of the fire, and the investigation is ongoing.
Evans is the mother of Lorie Loomis, who along with her husband Dana Loomis founded the Davidson County nonprofit Race Against Drugs following the April 2021 death of their 27-year-old son, James Allen Loomis, from fentanyl poisoning. The organization works with local agencies to distribute free Naloxone kits and hosts annual “Night of Remembrance” events in downtown Lexington, according to the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina. Dana Loomis said his family members were impacted by the fire and called Gracie a hero for getting her sister out and calling for help.
Community Rallies With Donations And A Fundraiser
The family's visibility through Race Against Drugs appears to have helped spur a quick community response. Neighbors and supporters collected essential donations for Evans, Gracie, and her sister Harley, and a GoFundMe was launched to help the family recover. The family said it appreciates the community's support as Evans continues her hospital stay.
Bedroom Candle Fires Remain A Leading Danger
The circumstances of the Lexington fire mirror a well-documented national pattern. U.S. fire departments responded to an average of 5,894 home structure fires started by candles each year between 2020 and 2024, causing 63 civilian deaths and 532 injuries annually, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Roughly 36% of all home candle fires start in bedrooms, accounting for 32% of related deaths and 47% of injuries, and the NFPA has found that nearly three out of five home candle fires happen because bedding or other combustible materials were placed or dropped too close to an open flame.
The sounding smoke alarm that alerted Gracie also reflects a factor investigators say is often decisive in North Carolina house fires. State fire investigation data reported by WCNC showed that more than half of fatal house fires in North Carolina in 2025 occurred in homes that lacked smoke alarms or had ones that weren't working. The North Carolina Office of State Fire Marshal recorded 159 civilian fire fatalities across 137 fatal incidents statewide in 2025, with 27 more deaths recorded in just the first six weeks of 2026.
The American Red Cross notes that an average of seven people die in U.S. home fires every day, but that functional smoke alarms cut the likelihood of death in a residential fire roughly in half. The Lexington Fire Department, which achieved an Insurance Services Office Class 1 rating effective January 1, 2026, placing it among the top 1% of fire departments nationwide for suppression readiness, continues to investigate what caused the blaze to spread as it did.
