A large family which has been dubbed the ‘most inbred’ in America have shared insight to their current living conditions after losing their home to a fire.
The Whittaker family, from the town of Odd, West Virginia, have offered updates into their lives at various points over the years with the help of documentarian Mark Laita, who shares videos about the Whittakers on his YouTube channel, Soft White Underbelly.
Just before Christmas, Laita shared a new video titled ‘Mobile Home Fire at the Whittakers’, which shows members of the family walking through grounds filled with charred objects.
A staircase leading to what once appears to have been a porch is visible among the wreckage, though now it leads to nothing but more dirt and damage.
“Look at this,” Laita says in the video. “Everything is burned.”
No one was in the house at the time of the fire, which occurred earlier in December, and the family members living at the property have now been forced to squeeze inside another home across the street, with Laita describing it as ‘crowded’.
Furniture has been crammed into the home the family members are now sharing along with their three dogs.
In the footage, at least six members of the family can be seen sitting inside the home as they describe seeing ‘smoke’ after the blaze broke out.
“The side of the camper was bright red,” one member recalls. “When [one relative] opened the door, it blew him back.”
Health issues caused by inbreeding are believed to have begun in the Whittaker family after twin brothers Henry and John each welcomed children.
The kids intermarried and had more than 12 children of their own. The inbreeding led to both physical and mental defects, with some members of the family only able to communicate through grunts and barks.
In the wake of the blaze, Soft White Underbelly has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the Whittakers replace the mobile home that was lost.
According to the page, which has a target of $16,000, any money raised will go towards clearing the remains of the burned home, obtaining a new mobile home and furnishing the new home.
“100% of the funds raised will go to the companies that will be clearing the debris and positioning the new mobile home, not the family,” the page explains, though Laita jokingly added: “Whatever money is leftover will be spent on a night at a nearby strip club for [family members] Ray and Timmy.”
