Mobile home fire victim remembered as someone who lifted everyone's spirits

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) -- Friends are remembering three family members killed in a mobile home fire in Gladys over the weekend.

The victims were identified as 48-year-old Melynda Ann Callaham, 28-year-old Francheska Danielle Lane, and 7-year-old Kadriana Lane all of Gladys.

Francheska Lane's friends call her "Fran," as news spread of her tragic death, they said they were in shock that something like this could happen.

It was just Saturday night when the 28-year-old stopped by the IHop on Fort Avenue in Lynchburg, where she worked as a cook, with her 7-year-old daughter, Kadriana, to say hi.

It was the last time Danielle Cumberbatch said she saw her alive. "It's just hard to think that you just gotta move on from things and life still has to go on," she said.

Sunday morning, everything changed.

Lane and her mother, Melynda Callaham, and her daughter Kadriana all died from the fire that torched their mobile home Sunday morning.

"I remember everybody messaging me and asking me if I was okay and I was wondering why and I came here and I was looking for her car cause that's the first person I always talk to when I come in here," Cumberbatch said.

Cumberbatch remembered Lane by saying she knew how to lift everyone's spirit. "Like, she embedded herself into everybody," Cumberbatch said. "Like, there's not one person I know that can say they didn't have a little piece of Fran with them."

Cumberbatch said it's a hard truth to process. "Sometimes, I'm like you know it's not real like when I heard it. I didn't believe it," she said. "But I woulda hugged her so much harder. You know you never think. I just met her daughter."

The mobile home fire is under investigation.

Family and friends plan to hold a candlelight vigil to honor the family at IHop on Wednesday night at 6 p.m.

There has also been a GoFundMe page created to help the family lay all three of them to rest.