House Fire - Help the Humphries

This campaign is intended to help raise funds for a good friend, Mark Humphries, and his family whose house burned to the ground on Friday, July 31, 2015 in Tyler, TX.

Mark is a "staple" in the local community and a genuinely good guy.  Although I do not live in the same town as Mark, I came to know him through involvement in a mutual hobby, large radio controlled airplanes.  To me, Mark has always stood out as a "giver" and a is always very quick to offer assistance to anyone in need.  Now it is our turn to help him and his family in their time of need.

As I started to write a description of this tragic event, I came to realize that no one could tell this story better than Mark himself, so here is an email that Mark sent to me last week:

"...The fire occurred last Friday. Thankfully I was at home.

The first thing I noticed was that air conditioner had quit. I thought it odd, as that never happened before. I checked the circuit breaker but it did not seem "tripped". I cycled the breaker anyway...the air conditioner started again but soon started making a very unusual noise. I turned it off and noticed a smell like smoke. I looked towards the back bedroom and seen a wisp of smoke...I went into the bedroom and noticed a "glow" in the back bathroom...the door was slightly open. I opened the door and was horrified to see flames coming from the wall at the base...I ran to get the fire extinguisher... I applied the fire extinguisher at the base of the flames and that seemed to extinguish the flames but I ran outside to the area in back of the house where the bathroom was located and again to my horror I found the wall on fire. I immediately expended the rest of the fire extinguisher to no avail...the fire continued!!! I called 911 and continued trying to put it out with water... Was only able to slow the progression. At some point I realized I was not going to do much more good and soon realized our dog was still in the house!!! By that time the house was completely smoke filled and almost half involved... Against my conscience better judgment I went into the house to find him. I know now and knew then that was not very smart!!! but I just could not help myself... Had a hard time finding him and I was already gasping for every breath, even before entering the burning house...it was so very, very close and I have never been so afraid in my life!!! I was quite aware I was drawing my last breaths!!! I thank God I found he and I escaped with our lives!! I could have grabbed some easily accessible valuables such as my wife's jewelry but the dog was much more important to me and I am sure her too. Things like this sure makes one understand what is truly important.


The fire was apparently due to electrical feeding the air conditioner circuit.

The house was virtually burnt to the ground. We lost most everything including clothes, gun collection, knife collection, wife's jewelry and anything household related including food stores etc...

As for as models, the only losses were just a few, especially those retired just for display. Thankfully most others were stored elsewhere.

All was uninsured losses...

Just the highlights but I could write a book...

Thanks for your concern and help.

Mark"

Let's see if we can band together as a community and help out a friend in need. 

Thank you all in advance for your generous donations!