Apartment Fire Recovery Fund
Donation protected
Salutations, the story on how we got to where we are is a bit of a doozy, so bear with me as I take you through it.
The short version: there was an apartment fire, I have been displaced, and my resources have been exhausted.
The long version, as follows:
My story on how I got here was from exiting a toxic relationship where I suffered mental and emotional abuse at the hands of a narcissist who tried to alienate me from my friends, my family, and everything else that mattered to me. Through the timely intervention of a friend who’s father owns a apartment building in Punxsutawney, offered a chance to get away and start over. The apartment itself was in need of work and after a great deal of sweat equity was put into it, I finally had a place to hang my hat. The one thing that I did not consider was how vastly different the job market is in this part of Pennsylvania compared to that of Northern Virginia: it’s all blue collar and retail. I have been in management since 2003 and I was GREATLY overqualified to every job I applied to, get no callbacks or interviews that led nowhere. It was a truly scary time, I was more or less unemployed for 18 months and having no savings to speak of because of my previous relationship, it drained what money I did have quickly. During that time an opportunity to move to a much better unit in the building presented itself and despite having no income, I was granted the permission to move into the other unit just as long as I could continue to pay the rent owed, and by hook or by crook I made it happen. I very briefly landed a job at Rent-A-Center as their Assistant Manager of Credit and Collections, that was truly a detestable job. Never before had I worked for a company that deliberately preyed on the ignorance of their customers. Then, mercifully, Dollar General came at me with a store manager position, so I left “RAC” and only got three days into DG before they let me go, saying the store I was supposed to take was based on their current manager retiring, and at the 11th hour she changed her mind. So I was back to being unemployed again…and then out of nowhere…I got an email from SMP Home Medical out of Saint Marys, PA, for a job in the next town over, Brookville. They needed a Community Health Technician (fancy speak for a delivery driver that sets up and educates patients with medical equipment prescribed by their doctor) and after seeing my run at Amazon on my résumé, they brought me in for an interview and were immediately impressed with my professionalism and my managerial background. A nail biting four weeks later, I was officially hired and started on September 1st 2021. Trying to get my financial independence back was an extremely hard one, debt collectors were coming after me and I had to hire legal representation to defend me. The firm I have hired has won so far, but I’m far from done tying up the loose ends from my previous relationship in Virginia. I was starting to make good headway, had a slam dunk 90 day evaluation where I got a small merit raise based on my efficiency. I even rescued a stray kitten that was in the side of the road, much to Fraidy’s chagrin. I was able to start setting aside money to pay back money borrowed from friends that helped me along the way, and have surpluses left over after each pay period…and then on January 30th around 3:30 in the morning…there was a loud knock on my door. At that time of night it was gonna be one of two people. The friend who got me up here, or his father the landlord. As it turned out, it was option 3, a police officer who said the building was on fire. As I would later find out, he saw it from the street and went inside to alert people inside. I was still in a daze and it just didn’t register what he had said, was this really happening? There was a haze in the hallway, I followed the officer down the hall to the room it was coming from. We got to the second floor rear apartment and there was grey smoke coming out from the doorway and we could both feel the heat, and yet there wasn’t a single sound of a smoke detector going off ANYWHERE. 1st grade fire drill thoughts took over and I ran back to my apartment, got my work boots on and ran outside. I didn’t grab my phone, my iPad, my wallet, my keys, my cats…and then began the longest 2 hours and 30 minutes of my life waiting outside in -3F weather. All the tenants of the building moved into the card shop next door, and eventually to the Free Masons lodge across the across the street once they got someone out there. I was inconsolable, I was a nervous wreck. I literally had my entire life in that apartment and in the 3rd floor loft, and Fraidy and Shalashaska (the name who I gave to the stray) who depend on me. Finally, mercifully, we got the all-clear from the fire marshal, and the marshal hypothesized that the fire was caused by a faulty electrical fixture in the bathroom. The fire didn’t get past the laundry room on the second floor, or past the window area or the third floor loft. Long and short of it, my stuff in the loft and the apartment were okay…but there was a third thing that completely slipped my mind. Downstairs from where the old apartment was that I stayed in when I first got up here, there’s a large open space and there I had kept until I found the space upstairs, was my parent’s dresser from when they were married, a full sized mirror that stands atop it, the head and foot boards from the bed, and my grandfather’s bar. All completely ruined by the water that had frozen over from the fire fighter’s water hose. And in the apartment itself downstairs had completely succumb to water damage having it all come down through the floor boards, completely water logging the entire apartment ruining everything they tenant had. For an added “that could have been me” moment, the apartment that caught fire was the *original* unit they were going to give to me to live in, but gave me the option of the larger unit downstairs. So yeah, the studio, my equipment, a lifetime of stuff, and my two cats, could have been lost had I stayed in either of those units. This is a realization that haunts me, of how close I came to losing everything twice. I’m lucky I only lost the furniture downstairs, but still extremely sad that pieces of furniture that had a history in my family were ruined and unable to be saved. There was a possibility that the stuff in the loft may have also suffered water damage, but thankfully no, just a lot of soot and smoke got into the stuff and I’m fairly confident that a microfiber cloth and some patience that I can get it all off. I can already tell it is going to be a laborious task.
So if I didn’t lose anything in the fire, why am I here telling you all this, asking for help?
I have been displaced.
Even though my unit did not suffer fire, water, or smoke damage, all power and plumbing for the south end of the building had been turned off. Despite the part of the building I lived was declared “structurally sound” I was not permitted to move back in. I was told to gather as much stuff I could can and talk to the members of the Red Cross to get lodging. After filling out paperwork, I was given a prepaid Mastercard with a small amount of money and was told to go to the Cobblestone Suites for lodging. I head over after I have gathered all my work clothes and my cats, and head to the front desk and they were already very aware of the situation and then the clerk at the front desk told me they only allow dogs. I ask what the room rate was, and I would only be able to afford a single night with the money Red Cross gave me…and then he said the rate was going to go up to $500 a night because of Groundhogs Day tourism. I said “no thank you” and left. I get to my car and call every hotel and motel in Punxsutawney, DuBois, and Brookville and they are ALL doing the same damn thing, all raising their rates because of the “holiday.” No one would make an exception for my situation. I start looking further west and the Motel 6 of Clarion said that they not only allow pets, but had a weekly rate that would work with the money the Red Cross gave me. I check in, settle in, and completely pass out till the next morning where I had to go to work. It was surreal driving to a motel at the end of my work day and not my apartment, but as the week went on and as I was getting updates on the building, I still wasn’t going to be allowed back in. I called the Red Cross if there was anything else they could do. They sent me a pittance to the prepaid MasterCard and hung up and seconds later receiving a text from them saying they closed my file. I ask Motel 6 for another week and I feel confident that everything will be restored in that time. Friday approaches and things are still not where they need to be. I received some outside assistance from a friend to help cover yet a third week, and things were not done, leaving his efforts completely in vain. I then receive word from the landlord that they’re gonna be tearing out the floor, the ceiling, the cabinetry and replace it all. He goes on to say that I need to cover everything with plastic drop cloths and move everything to the center of each room. I spend that entire Sunday afternoon spending $60 in plastic drop cloths only to be told that next day that the foreman will not work on my rooms with all the stuff in it, it all has to go and they can’t work around it. It a total state of panic, I call my boss and ask if I can use one of my Personal Time Off (PTO) days to do this. He was okay with it but he had to get approval from two people above him because it was such short notice. The landlord’s son arranged transport by way of a 26ft U-Haul and had two 10x10 storage units in Brookville arranged but we were light on help. We got some assistance here and there, but it still took us 12 hours and 14 minutes to get everything out of there 9 hours loading it and 3 hours unloading it, sprinkle the remaining 14 minutes wherever you like. I am in the best shape of my life right now thanks to how active my job keeps me, but even then on the drive back to Punxsutawney to return the truck, it all caught back up to me and my whole body ached from moving and lifting and all that nonstop. I was an absolute disaster at work the next day, making even the smallest of deliveries a herculean task. That was over a month ago, and I still can’t fully flex my right leg. To make matters worse, I was wearing my Under Armor that day and chafed my thighs raw and sweated all manner of garbage so badly that I gave myself a urinary tract infection that I am still dealing with issues relating to it long after the antibiotics have done their job. I am a mess, and to make matters worse, at this point I could no longer afford to stay in the motel and had to check out. I am now staying with a friend of the landlord’s son who lives in an unaffected part of the north end of the building, which would be fine if it was just me, but it isn’t. This is the same 9x12 room I stayed in while we were all working on getting the first floor apartment ready, two years ago to the month. I’m back right where I started, but this time I have cats with me and they are going stir crazy because they have no space to get away from each other. I was advised to by the Red Cross to call Community Action of Punxsutawney and see what they could offered. They said I could check myself in to the homeless shelter, but my cats vaccinations had to be up to date, but ironically not mine, so that wasn’t going to happen. No one will board them because their shots aren’t current, and it’s not like I could afford to board them somewhere anyway.
So much was supposed to happen in February that didn’t because of the fire. Shalashaska was supposed to get vaccinated so he could get neutered, and Fraidy was also supposed to get her shots up to date and a wellness check (she turned 14 in October). I was supposed to get a bevy of preventive maintenance done on my car that I had been saving up for. I was supposed to finally see my Primary Care Provider for the first time (now that I have insurance) to get my shoulders/wrists/knees looked at because they have been giving me hell since I started work. They schedule 6 weeks out for new patients so I had to wait ALL OVER AGAIN for this upcoming Wednesday to see them. And to cap it all off, back in January, I saw an ENT because I suffer from chronic sinusitis and frequent sinus infections and the doctor is confident that he can correct my deviated septum and open up my nasal passages so that I am able to breathe better. The surgery is currently scheduled for April 1st (completely serious) and the recovery time is estimated at two weeks. I was counting on the money that I had before the fire to get me through that time period because I would be missing a whole pay period in order to do this because I don’t have enough PTO or cover the whole thing. It’s already been approved through the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) so I won’t lose my job while I’m recovering, but I still have to pay a share of the rent for where I’m staying, food and gas, cat food and litter, the storage units in Brookville where all my stuff is, and my attorney fees for the debt collectors that keep coming after me, and goodness know what else I forgot to mention here.
This is why I am turning to you all for help. It does not look like my apartment is going to done anytime soon, it’s already been a month and it doesn’t look like the restoration crew has done anything in three weeks. The neighbors down the hall after going through the same thing I am right now and they were told by the landlord “optimistically 5 months.” They too are now also displaced, but the difference here is: they have family they can stay with - I don’t. All my family is in Virginia and Illinois, neither of which are across the street. I have a job that I genuinely enjoy and don’t want to walk away from it. Perhaps this is the moment to start looking for a dwelling closer to it, since I can’t move back in to where I am now anytime soon. What I am looking for is to recoup the money, time, and effort that was lost to the fire. Again, my apartment was unaffected, and yet I am displaced, with two cats that are very unhappy at the small living space I am forced to deal with no viable alternative. Whatever you can spare will be of a great help, and if you can share this on all social media platforms you participate in for the next couple of weeks, it would be a tremendous help.
I thank you for your time in reading this, and I wish you well.
The short version: there was an apartment fire, I have been displaced, and my resources have been exhausted.
The long version, as follows:
My story on how I got here was from exiting a toxic relationship where I suffered mental and emotional abuse at the hands of a narcissist who tried to alienate me from my friends, my family, and everything else that mattered to me. Through the timely intervention of a friend who’s father owns a apartment building in Punxsutawney, offered a chance to get away and start over. The apartment itself was in need of work and after a great deal of sweat equity was put into it, I finally had a place to hang my hat. The one thing that I did not consider was how vastly different the job market is in this part of Pennsylvania compared to that of Northern Virginia: it’s all blue collar and retail. I have been in management since 2003 and I was GREATLY overqualified to every job I applied to, get no callbacks or interviews that led nowhere. It was a truly scary time, I was more or less unemployed for 18 months and having no savings to speak of because of my previous relationship, it drained what money I did have quickly. During that time an opportunity to move to a much better unit in the building presented itself and despite having no income, I was granted the permission to move into the other unit just as long as I could continue to pay the rent owed, and by hook or by crook I made it happen. I very briefly landed a job at Rent-A-Center as their Assistant Manager of Credit and Collections, that was truly a detestable job. Never before had I worked for a company that deliberately preyed on the ignorance of their customers. Then, mercifully, Dollar General came at me with a store manager position, so I left “RAC” and only got three days into DG before they let me go, saying the store I was supposed to take was based on their current manager retiring, and at the 11th hour she changed her mind. So I was back to being unemployed again…and then out of nowhere…I got an email from SMP Home Medical out of Saint Marys, PA, for a job in the next town over, Brookville. They needed a Community Health Technician (fancy speak for a delivery driver that sets up and educates patients with medical equipment prescribed by their doctor) and after seeing my run at Amazon on my résumé, they brought me in for an interview and were immediately impressed with my professionalism and my managerial background. A nail biting four weeks later, I was officially hired and started on September 1st 2021. Trying to get my financial independence back was an extremely hard one, debt collectors were coming after me and I had to hire legal representation to defend me. The firm I have hired has won so far, but I’m far from done tying up the loose ends from my previous relationship in Virginia. I was starting to make good headway, had a slam dunk 90 day evaluation where I got a small merit raise based on my efficiency. I even rescued a stray kitten that was in the side of the road, much to Fraidy’s chagrin. I was able to start setting aside money to pay back money borrowed from friends that helped me along the way, and have surpluses left over after each pay period…and then on January 30th around 3:30 in the morning…there was a loud knock on my door. At that time of night it was gonna be one of two people. The friend who got me up here, or his father the landlord. As it turned out, it was option 3, a police officer who said the building was on fire. As I would later find out, he saw it from the street and went inside to alert people inside. I was still in a daze and it just didn’t register what he had said, was this really happening? There was a haze in the hallway, I followed the officer down the hall to the room it was coming from. We got to the second floor rear apartment and there was grey smoke coming out from the doorway and we could both feel the heat, and yet there wasn’t a single sound of a smoke detector going off ANYWHERE. 1st grade fire drill thoughts took over and I ran back to my apartment, got my work boots on and ran outside. I didn’t grab my phone, my iPad, my wallet, my keys, my cats…and then began the longest 2 hours and 30 minutes of my life waiting outside in -3F weather. All the tenants of the building moved into the card shop next door, and eventually to the Free Masons lodge across the across the street once they got someone out there. I was inconsolable, I was a nervous wreck. I literally had my entire life in that apartment and in the 3rd floor loft, and Fraidy and Shalashaska (the name who I gave to the stray) who depend on me. Finally, mercifully, we got the all-clear from the fire marshal, and the marshal hypothesized that the fire was caused by a faulty electrical fixture in the bathroom. The fire didn’t get past the laundry room on the second floor, or past the window area or the third floor loft. Long and short of it, my stuff in the loft and the apartment were okay…but there was a third thing that completely slipped my mind. Downstairs from where the old apartment was that I stayed in when I first got up here, there’s a large open space and there I had kept until I found the space upstairs, was my parent’s dresser from when they were married, a full sized mirror that stands atop it, the head and foot boards from the bed, and my grandfather’s bar. All completely ruined by the water that had frozen over from the fire fighter’s water hose. And in the apartment itself downstairs had completely succumb to water damage having it all come down through the floor boards, completely water logging the entire apartment ruining everything they tenant had. For an added “that could have been me” moment, the apartment that caught fire was the *original* unit they were going to give to me to live in, but gave me the option of the larger unit downstairs. So yeah, the studio, my equipment, a lifetime of stuff, and my two cats, could have been lost had I stayed in either of those units. This is a realization that haunts me, of how close I came to losing everything twice. I’m lucky I only lost the furniture downstairs, but still extremely sad that pieces of furniture that had a history in my family were ruined and unable to be saved. There was a possibility that the stuff in the loft may have also suffered water damage, but thankfully no, just a lot of soot and smoke got into the stuff and I’m fairly confident that a microfiber cloth and some patience that I can get it all off. I can already tell it is going to be a laborious task.
So if I didn’t lose anything in the fire, why am I here telling you all this, asking for help?
I have been displaced.
Even though my unit did not suffer fire, water, or smoke damage, all power and plumbing for the south end of the building had been turned off. Despite the part of the building I lived was declared “structurally sound” I was not permitted to move back in. I was told to gather as much stuff I could can and talk to the members of the Red Cross to get lodging. After filling out paperwork, I was given a prepaid Mastercard with a small amount of money and was told to go to the Cobblestone Suites for lodging. I head over after I have gathered all my work clothes and my cats, and head to the front desk and they were already very aware of the situation and then the clerk at the front desk told me they only allow dogs. I ask what the room rate was, and I would only be able to afford a single night with the money Red Cross gave me…and then he said the rate was going to go up to $500 a night because of Groundhogs Day tourism. I said “no thank you” and left. I get to my car and call every hotel and motel in Punxsutawney, DuBois, and Brookville and they are ALL doing the same damn thing, all raising their rates because of the “holiday.” No one would make an exception for my situation. I start looking further west and the Motel 6 of Clarion said that they not only allow pets, but had a weekly rate that would work with the money the Red Cross gave me. I check in, settle in, and completely pass out till the next morning where I had to go to work. It was surreal driving to a motel at the end of my work day and not my apartment, but as the week went on and as I was getting updates on the building, I still wasn’t going to be allowed back in. I called the Red Cross if there was anything else they could do. They sent me a pittance to the prepaid MasterCard and hung up and seconds later receiving a text from them saying they closed my file. I ask Motel 6 for another week and I feel confident that everything will be restored in that time. Friday approaches and things are still not where they need to be. I received some outside assistance from a friend to help cover yet a third week, and things were not done, leaving his efforts completely in vain. I then receive word from the landlord that they’re gonna be tearing out the floor, the ceiling, the cabinetry and replace it all. He goes on to say that I need to cover everything with plastic drop cloths and move everything to the center of each room. I spend that entire Sunday afternoon spending $60 in plastic drop cloths only to be told that next day that the foreman will not work on my rooms with all the stuff in it, it all has to go and they can’t work around it. It a total state of panic, I call my boss and ask if I can use one of my Personal Time Off (PTO) days to do this. He was okay with it but he had to get approval from two people above him because it was such short notice. The landlord’s son arranged transport by way of a 26ft U-Haul and had two 10x10 storage units in Brookville arranged but we were light on help. We got some assistance here and there, but it still took us 12 hours and 14 minutes to get everything out of there 9 hours loading it and 3 hours unloading it, sprinkle the remaining 14 minutes wherever you like. I am in the best shape of my life right now thanks to how active my job keeps me, but even then on the drive back to Punxsutawney to return the truck, it all caught back up to me and my whole body ached from moving and lifting and all that nonstop. I was an absolute disaster at work the next day, making even the smallest of deliveries a herculean task. That was over a month ago, and I still can’t fully flex my right leg. To make matters worse, I was wearing my Under Armor that day and chafed my thighs raw and sweated all manner of garbage so badly that I gave myself a urinary tract infection that I am still dealing with issues relating to it long after the antibiotics have done their job. I am a mess, and to make matters worse, at this point I could no longer afford to stay in the motel and had to check out. I am now staying with a friend of the landlord’s son who lives in an unaffected part of the north end of the building, which would be fine if it was just me, but it isn’t. This is the same 9x12 room I stayed in while we were all working on getting the first floor apartment ready, two years ago to the month. I’m back right where I started, but this time I have cats with me and they are going stir crazy because they have no space to get away from each other. I was advised to by the Red Cross to call Community Action of Punxsutawney and see what they could offered. They said I could check myself in to the homeless shelter, but my cats vaccinations had to be up to date, but ironically not mine, so that wasn’t going to happen. No one will board them because their shots aren’t current, and it’s not like I could afford to board them somewhere anyway.
So much was supposed to happen in February that didn’t because of the fire. Shalashaska was supposed to get vaccinated so he could get neutered, and Fraidy was also supposed to get her shots up to date and a wellness check (she turned 14 in October). I was supposed to get a bevy of preventive maintenance done on my car that I had been saving up for. I was supposed to finally see my Primary Care Provider for the first time (now that I have insurance) to get my shoulders/wrists/knees looked at because they have been giving me hell since I started work. They schedule 6 weeks out for new patients so I had to wait ALL OVER AGAIN for this upcoming Wednesday to see them. And to cap it all off, back in January, I saw an ENT because I suffer from chronic sinusitis and frequent sinus infections and the doctor is confident that he can correct my deviated septum and open up my nasal passages so that I am able to breathe better. The surgery is currently scheduled for April 1st (completely serious) and the recovery time is estimated at two weeks. I was counting on the money that I had before the fire to get me through that time period because I would be missing a whole pay period in order to do this because I don’t have enough PTO or cover the whole thing. It’s already been approved through the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) so I won’t lose my job while I’m recovering, but I still have to pay a share of the rent for where I’m staying, food and gas, cat food and litter, the storage units in Brookville where all my stuff is, and my attorney fees for the debt collectors that keep coming after me, and goodness know what else I forgot to mention here.
This is why I am turning to you all for help. It does not look like my apartment is going to done anytime soon, it’s already been a month and it doesn’t look like the restoration crew has done anything in three weeks. The neighbors down the hall after going through the same thing I am right now and they were told by the landlord “optimistically 5 months.” They too are now also displaced, but the difference here is: they have family they can stay with - I don’t. All my family is in Virginia and Illinois, neither of which are across the street. I have a job that I genuinely enjoy and don’t want to walk away from it. Perhaps this is the moment to start looking for a dwelling closer to it, since I can’t move back in to where I am now anytime soon. What I am looking for is to recoup the money, time, and effort that was lost to the fire. Again, my apartment was unaffected, and yet I am displaced, with two cats that are very unhappy at the small living space I am forced to deal with no viable alternative. Whatever you can spare will be of a great help, and if you can share this on all social media platforms you participate in for the next couple of weeks, it would be a tremendous help.
I thank you for your time in reading this, and I wish you well.
Organizer
Thomas Michel Harvey
Organizer
Punxsutawney, PA