The Derek von Oetinger Family.

Hello.

My name is Heidi M. von Oetinger-Reed. I am Derek James von Oetinger's sister.

My brother and his family survived a devastating fire on February 24th at 10:00 am. My brother was asleep as was his and son. Yoland, my sister-in-law, came home from working the midnight shift as a caregiver at 7:00 am. The family had experienced a power outage for 2 days due to the ice storm. DTE still did not have the electricity running. Derek was heating the house with the fireplace due to the power outage. Unbeknownst to Derek, the fireplace did not have a sheetrock subfloor underneath it. They had a Madison Heights home which they have lived in for 17 years.

After 48 hours, the floorboards spontaneously combusted. The entire family was asleep. Derek felt chest pain in his sleep. He woke up in a room filled with black smoke filling the space from the ceiling to the bed. Derek ran to the living room by feeling the walls as he was not able to see through the completely black smoke. He saw a torch of white flames shooting up from underneath the fireplace. The basement had flashed over in fire. Derek opened the front door to let the smoke out. Then, Derek ran back to get Zarek (my nephew) and Yolanda up from their sleep. They awoke and ran to the front porch where they heard their 2 beloved cats howling. They called 911. Derek attempted to run in for the cats. He made it about three steps in but the toxic smoke made it unbearable. Derek came out and then Yolanda tried to find the cats, Garfield and Sylvester. She made it about 3 steps as well and had to turn back. Derek and Yolanda were overcome with toxic smoke and they were totally confused when they made it back out to the front porch. They were devastated over the loss of their beloved cats as the howling stopped. My brother knew that the cats were deceased.

They are lucky to be alive. Derek has mild burns on his face, wrists and hands. Their key fabs were melted and could not get back into their cars.

They have nothing but clothes on their backs. They were barefoot, with no shoes, in the cold. Any help, prayers and financial support would be greatly appreciated. No person likes to ask for help. In this case, the need is great.