Rebuild Cat & David’s home after accidental devastating fire

Hi, I’m Catriona (but everyone calls me Cat) Fletcher and I never thought this would be me but I need to ask the universe for help. An accidental house fire on 23rd May 2024 has devastated my home - it is now uninhabitable.

I and my lodger are homeless.

80% of my worldly possessions no longer exist and I have been forced to reach out and ask for help, which does not come easy but I don’t have many options.

For the past 5 years I have shared my home with my lovely (very patient!) lodger, David Hunt - the Head of Design & Technology at Seaford Head High School in East Sussex along with my beloved pet cat Shaniqua. We both loved Shaniqua as did everyone on our street.

I awoke just before midnight on 22nd May in a flame engulfed room with exploding fire arcs. I somehow managed to escape out the back door. David was woken and escaped out the front door. We both had minor injuries and went to A&E at 1am. David’s injuries came about through trying to save me.

Shaniqua was very sadly killed from smoke inhalation in spite of the incredible efforts of the Fire Brigade who re-entered my burning house to try and rescue her…I’m just totally heart-broken. Still after 8 weeks.

I stupidly let my insurance lapse and I’ve exhausted my savings on emptying the house, waste and debris removal ( 3 big skips filled already and it’s ongoing), structural engineer and through not working for 6 weeks.

This is an appeal to raise enough money to make the building water-tight and to re-wire it and replace a few structural lintels. That will probably cost £10-15k but then I would be able to ‘live’ there (not be homeless - yay) and then I can go about borrowing enough money to do the rest of the work. Altogether it is going to cost around £30-40k to make the house properly liveable again…that may take some time to complete, that’s okay I can live more frugally for a while but making the house weather-proof and with power in the short-term makes the next steps possible.

The building has a roof and brick walls - but not a lot else! Every wall and ceiling needs re-plastering. New flooring throughout. Every door replaced. All the windows on ground floor need replacing. A kitchen. Part of the bathroom….etc etc etc

I just need some help to get the initial tranche of work done before winter arrives (!) and so the house is in a state to be re-mortgage-able. Hopefully I have helped enough people over the years in the community and via Freegle, The Free Shop, The Waste House, Tech-Takeback, shipping container reuse depot and building clearance contracts - that some very good karma might be possible.

David and I would be so grateful for any amount of money that we manage to raise - it will literally help to get our lives back - and more than a just roof over our heads.

It's really not any fun at all, aged 60+, being without a home.

Or perhaps you’d like to help us in other ways?

I'm definitely going to need Tradies - an electrician especially in the beginning.

And a builder and materials…

Luckily enough my small humble ex-Council semi detached home has absolutely *no* architectural features and the work required is straightforward, plain building and trades. Feel free to drop me a message with any ideas as I’m definitely open to suggestions and anything that involves reusing materials :-) ! I will do a lot of the work myself and David is an excellent ex-‘painter and decorator’ but some jobs are way beyond my eclectic skills….

Thank you for reading this far.

David and I are beyond grateful to a whole bunch of people who have kept us safe and sane and/or housed this past 8 weeks.

Thank You to:

Fireman Phil and the East Sussex Fire Brigade.

Sirus, India and Ruby.

Edward, Jane, Sheila & Kathryn and everyone at Freegle around the UK.

The crew at Presuming Ed’s cafe in Brighton, especially Richard, Steve and Murray.

The Brighton Open Market and traders.

Paul.

Rosy.

Les.

The Free Shop crew: Sharna, Fari, Alice and Clara AND Pam (Wonder Woman).

Jackie from Lloyds Bank.

Aunty Kath, Uncle Pete, Uncle Ric and Aunty Pam in Australia.

Kate.

Georgia and Danny.

Steven and Debbie-Sue.

The Meeching Road crew…

The Seaford Head High community.

Yvette and Joe.

Our wonderful neighbours especially Lyndsey, Dave and Claire.

Thank you! Thank you!

Take care everyone - life is so very precarious and precious,

Much love-

Cat x

PS If I see you in real life I may not be able to speak about the fire. Don’t think me rude, I’m just up and down like a yo-yo and still feel quite traumatised X

PPS Please, please don’t donate money if you can’t afford to - I understand how tricky it is navigating the cost of living crisis. Good thoughts and virtual hugs are important too!