Henderson mother badly burned in June fire out of hospital

"(It feels) pretty good to be home with my children," Barbara Ann Lassiter said Saturday. "It was kind of different when I got home because I hadn't seen them in so long."

Home is not exactly where it was when she was admitted to the hospital on June 25, with burns covering 15 percent of her body. That home, at 210 Carolina Ave., went up in flames in the early morning when one of Lassiter's four children was playing with a lighter in the living room.

The rest of the family was asleep but got out just in time.

"We broke the windows and pushed the screen out and jumped out the window," Lassiter said.

She and her children are now staying with her father, James Lassiter.

Lassiter's 4-year-old daughter, Jessica Bustos, 11-year-old son, Michael Moncada, and boyfriend, Lorenzo Bustos, also suffered severe burns in the fire. Michael was treated and released within days of the fire; Jessica left the hospital after three weeks.

Lorenzo Bustos remains at the Jaycee Burn Center at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. Lassiter said he started walking a few days ago.

"When I went in there the day before yesterday to tell him that I was going home, he got up and started walking," she said.

Lassiter said it was impossible to describe the pain she felt in the fire.

"It was indescribable really. It was very painful. I felt like I was still on fire even outside," she said.