After escaping the flames raging through his McHenry County home early Wednesday, Michael Bray ran to the back yard where he believed his two children and their mother had fled to safety.
Instead, Bray saw Gabrielle Pierce inside, frantically pounding on a bedroom window, trying to break the glass, authorities said.
Bray “told us they were trying to reach each other through the glass but were not successful before all fell silent,” said McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren. “It is a horrible, horrible tragedy.”
Pierce, 36, and her children, Michael Jr., 11, and Alexandra, 9, apparently died of smoke inhalation shortly after 2 a.m. when the fire engulfed their ranch in the 5800 block of Bunny Avenue in Pistakee Highlands near Fox Lake, Nygren said.
Firefighters found Pierce holding her son, a mattress covering them. Alexandra was near a dresser. The family’s Labrador retriever also died.
Bray, 37, who was hospitalized with minor burns, apparently fell asleep while hooked up to a dialysis machine in the living room, authorities said.
“There were sparks coming from the machine and the cords and the room was glowing,” Nygren said. “I think this will be a clear-cut case, nothing more than a tragedy.”
Fire officials are investigating whether the blaze may have started in the dialysis machine or in the electrical cords it was attached to.
Bray, who awoke around 2 a.m. after feeling intense heat, saw flames throughout the living room. There were no smoke alarms in the house.
He said he called to Pierce and the children in the couple’s bedroom, where they had fallen asleep on the bed watching television. Bray told police that Pierce answered him, and that he believed she had fled with the children through a back door. With the fire intensifying, he rushed out the front door, authorities said.
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When firefighters arrived, they removed the children from the one-story ranch home and administered CPR in an attempt to revive them, Nygren said.
Bray suffers complications from diabetes, which he was diagnosed with at age 11, said his mother, Patricia. He is legally blind and uses the dialysis machine intermittently, his mother said.
“They were the greatest family,” she said. “The children were their dad’s heart.”
Pierce, who wasn’t married to Bray, worked two jobs to support the family.
Neighbors said Wednesday that they felt as if they had lost their own children.
“She was the daughter my wife and I never had,” said Steve Ewell, who lives across the street. “We all took them in because we know sometimes life is tough.”
Alexandra was a 4th grader at Bush Elementary School in Johnsburg. Michael, a 6th grader, attended Johnsburg Junior High School.
“We’re coping with it,” Bush Principal Derek Straight said. “Obviously, we’re all devastated.”
Alexandra liked to bake cookies with moms in the neighborhood.
In addition to working at a dialysis center in Round Lake, Pierce was a longtime waitress at Duke’s Grill in Wauconda. She was training to be a dialysis technician, friends said.
“She wanted to provide home care for her husband and was excited about a nursing career,” bar owner Duke Ivers said.
The loss of Pierce was felt keenly at the sports bar, which just recently celebrated her 36th birthday with songs and a cake.
“A bunch of regular customers were singing happy birthday with the whole staff,” Ivers said. “She was well-loved here. She never had a frown on her face. She was named Gabbie for a reason; she was a talker and loved people.”
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