Help after House Fire for Ryan, Holly, and little J

Dear neighbours, friends, and family,

We are asking for your help in the wake of a huge house fire in our home recently. Most of our possessions are either completely obliterated or smoke damaged beyond repair. Most of our house will need to be gutted and rebuilt. We have been living paycheck to paycheck and currently don’t have funds to cover the insurance deductible, clothes, toiletries, cremation costs for Toast the cat that we lost in the fire, vet bills for Cardigan the cat that survived, and so on. These are lean times that we are all living in, and we don’t expect anyone to make a donation but will be grateful for anything anyone has comfortably to spare.

Regardless of whether you can make a donation, please please do this one thing for us:

1) Check all your smoke detectors and CO monitors and put fresh batteries in them TODAY or get the kind that lasts a decade. Get extras. Put up more than you think you need. This wasn’t the issue at our house, but please do this for us anyway. We are now obsessed with the fire safety of everyone we love.

2) Check all your outlets. Loose or faulty outlets are a huge fire risk. If you don’t have to push firmly to get a plug to go in, the connection is not secure enough and arcs and sparks can form. We don't know if this was the issue at our house, but again, this is worth doing.

Okay, that was two things. Please do them. For us. We love you,

Holly, Ryan, and little J