Rebuilding from damage after house fire

On June 8, 2020, our family home unexpectedly caught on fire due to a fault in an electrical outlet. The fire started in the master bedroom while my parents were away from the house on a short errand - my sister and I noticed the smell and presence of smoke upstairs in time for us to realize the gravity of the situation and evacuate safely. Because the smoke was filling the house rapidly and neither of us had prior intuition on what could have been causing it, we were unable to do anything in the brief moments we remained inside to properly minimize or prevent the fire that broke out shortly thereafter.

Thanks to the fast response of our local firefighters, the flames in our house were eventually put out, but not before the entirety of my parents’ bedroom area was damaged beyond recognition. Everything in and connected to the room burned, to include the furniture, walls, ceilings, carpet, bathroom & closet. To our great dismay, absolutely nothing from their room is salvageable. My mom and step dad have no clothes, shoes, jewelry, or even toiletries left. In addition, much of the downstairs area is flooded from the efforts to extinguish the fire, and all rooms in the house have suffered from significant smoke damage – altering the appearance of surfaces and contaminating the smell of clothes that didn’t burn.

In a cruel twist of fate, this fire has taken place just as my parents had finished their personal project of remodeling and refurnishing our home over the past several months, something that required extensive planning, effort, and patience. Despite dedicating a majority of their weekends and weeknights to the betterment of our living space after working their respective jobs during the day, they are now faced with the reality of having to rebuild and replace everything they worked on.

My mom is heartbroken and in shock. It’s been hard on me to see her face fraught with sadness, exhaustion, and defeat between her moments of forced composure and optimism the past couple days. Considering how she carried me and my siblings through a lengthy,  stressful, and at times dangerous divorce several years ago, I can’t help but think that part of her present sorrow comes from reflecting on the disheartening prospect of starting over again after making so much progress from past trauma.

It’s difficult to process, but short of the clothes she was wearing and the phone she’d taken with her, my mom witnessed the loss of nearly all her immediate possessions in a matter of minutes. Knowing how hard she worked for everything she owned and how selfless and generous she is to others makes me hurt for her in this challenging time; but moreover inspires me to do anything I can to help her get back to a sense of normalcy. After hearing offers to help from many friends and kind neighbors, I decided to create this fundraising campaign in hope of consolidating some amount of money that would help my mom replace her wardrobe, cover the hefty repair costs, and worry a little bit less in the coming days. If you are able, any donation amount would help us a lot as we try to make a plan out of an uncertain future.

Amid all that’s gone wrong, there IS still reason to be grateful: all family members (including our dogs) managed to escape and are now safe; my sister and I still have belongings to return to; and some of our precious family keepsakes were not reached by the flames. We are thankful to have kind neighbors and good friends whose words and gestures of support have been comforting to receive.


Thank you for taking the time to read any portion of this. If you are unable to donate given the other things going on in our country and world, your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated.