Phoenix family grieves the loss 55-year-old Donald Schmidt in Almeda Drive Fire

Phoenix family grieves the loss 55-year-old Donald Schmidt in Almeda Drive Fire

One donald schmidt passed away during the almeda drive fire.

His step son telling me about the character that donald was tonight.

"great man.

Full of laughter, lots of humor.

çáátake zach lineááñ he treated my mom really well.

He was just an all around great guy."

çáátake topic lineááñ 55 year old donald schmidt's step son zach describes him as a wonderful man.

A man his family says fought until the very end.

çáázach lineááñ "he told my mother to go ahead and grab the animals and go and i will stay here and protect the house if the fire does come to the park."

çáátake topic lineááñ schmidt's sister tells newswatch 12 that he was the loud one on the block, with plenty of humor to go around.

He was a veteran that served in the us army.

She also tells us that his family has been officially made aware by the jackson county sherrif's office that he passed away at bear lake estates.

"i don't think both of them realized how serious the fire was."

Zach bulebar tells us that his mother didnt recieve any warning that a fire was on the way.

Something donald's family has a lot of questions about.

çáázach lineááñ "no alert, nothing on her phone that she got an alert that there was a fire approaching the park.

Everybody at the park seemed totaly fine at the time right before the fire got to the park."

With questions circulating from the public about the lack of notifications to the phoenix and talent area from emergency alert systems, bulebar says something has to be done so that families don't feel this kind of rush again.

"i would like to now why that alert system did not activate and send an alert message to everybody that "hey, there is a fire and it is close to the park and it is time