Help Clara Rebuild After Fire Devastation

Soutenons Clara après l’incendie de son immeuble!

J'écris au nom de notre amie Clara Kasser qui fait partie de notre communauté française à New York depuis 2008.

L’immeuble entier de Clara a brûlé dans la nuit du 8 janvier dernier, détruisant tous ses biens personnels et ceux de sa famille. Réveillés par l'incendie, Clara et son fils Timothée ont heureusement pu s'échapper et n'ont subi aucune blessures dans l'incendie, mais ils ont tout perdu.

Ils doivent maintenant faire face au traumatisme et aux dépenses imprévues.

Tout l’argent récolté ira directement à Clara.

Si vous le pouvez, faites un don ou partagez-le sur vos réseaux sociaux pour l’aider.

Merci!

English below:

I’m writing on behalf of our beloved friend and talented photographer Clara Kasser, part of our French family in New York since 2008.

Clara’s home burned to the ground on January 8, destroying all of her and her family’s personal belongings. Thankfully Clara and her son Timothée were able to escape and did not sustain any injuries in the fire, but they now have to navigate the trauma, unexpected expenses and other unknowns as they try to rebuild their lives.

Any funds donated will go directly to Clara. If able, please donate or share on your social media to spread awareness. Every single donation helps.

A message from Clara:

In short, we lost our home yesterday.

In long version, I woke up around 5.20am because of a nightmare where I couldn’t breathe only to realize we had no power and that was not a nightmare but reality, woke up my son in the next seconds, jumped in some clothes ( in the dark, so ended up with only jeans and a sweater in wool in turned in the wrong direction, a winter jacket and my phone and keys and grabbed because I could feel them a pair of doc Martens. Without light and the stress, I just opened the window and screamed to a few people on the sidewalk to call 911 and our address then rushed up the stairs. The scariest part ever. We couldn’t breathe or see anything, coughing every second, etc … We were lucky it was only 2 flights of stairs and at some point we were both on the sidewalk free and able to breathe. I was barefoot ( by -18C) so I finally put on my shoes, without socks, and the rest was the longest wait ever. We watched for two hours as our life vanished into smoke. The fire hydrant servicing our building was frozen so the fire escalated really badly very fast… The red cross took us after to help with the “after” part.

We were able to get back inside a few minutes despite the danger after the fire was stopped so I managed to find under the roof and walls collapsed on all my things, at least our passports, my cameras, some of my lenses, some clothes. Honestly that’s all I could hope for. I am so thankful to be alive, that my son is, that our neighbors as well. It was the most terrifying 15 minutes of my life and I am thinking of all Californians and others who are going through this nightmare right now.

We are staying with friends, and as well as can be given the circumstances.

We only lost “things” and I am so so so grateful for that.

Thank you to the 145 firemen who fought and all the emergency system who helped us through that.

https://www.instagram.com/pommepommenyc/

Thank you!