Update 2/23:

Hey everyone! I just wanna thank everyone from the bottom of my heart seriously thank you so far for all the support and love and donations and shares.

It’s really hard to fathom waking up one day and not having anything and starting over. Losing your home you raised your kids in and rebuilding from the ground up. It is very daunting. It’s many long phone calls and being stuck on hold and living in temporary places and picking up all the pieces and trying to figure out all the steps and in what order to prioritize them all. It’s a complicated full time job while also going through so much trauma and processing it all and finding the energy to just keep going and pushing through all the hurdles.

I don’t know if anyone I’ve met or talked to or messaged online will be reading this but thank you so much for offering help, advice, donations, clothing etc. Every neighbor I have encountered has been an absolute ANGEL.

The 5 month old puppy that they have bonded with, potty trained, loved over, dotted on and Rongo the kitty they have had for many many years who has had the most wonderful, content, comfortable life is still missing. This is the hardest part and we are still desperately searching for them and hoping they are out there. Thank you neighbors for always keeping vigilant. Without you all watching and keeping tabs it is hard to imagine we would even have a shot at finding them. A neighbor printed out flyers and the mailman put them on every mailbox around and I can’t express how warm that made my heart. Thanks for keeping hope alive. I’ve been in touch with a volunteer group called LARG and they have been so helpful and also so quick to respond. They are very knowledgeable and passionate about what they do and I cannot recommend them enough. Thank you Casa Mia’s for letting me put up a missing pet flyer and being so sympathetic and helpful!!!

They have managed to get some clothes, food, luggage, a wheelchair and a few more things. They finally have been able to replace their phones that were destroyed in the fire. If anyone wants to reach out their original numbers are all working now.

They thank you so much for making one of the most awful things someone can go through, a little less awful.

sorry if my message feels redundant or a little long. It’s hard to find the words that will truly capture the amount of gratitude felt.

_______________________________________

Hey everyone! One of my dearest friends and his mother and father have lost their home and everything in it in a fire. We are still holding out hope that in the chaos the pets made it out. We are there every day searching and leaving food and I know the neighbors are all keeping an eye out.

They are so so grateful for everyone who has asked what they can do to help. The community has been so kind and the family wants to say thank you so much to everyone who has reached out.

They haven’t replaced their phones yet and are working on getting car keys made. Then they will be able to get some basic things like clothes. The clothing they fled the house in is all they have. Everything was destroyed. Insurance is covering a place to stay right now but it’s going to be a long long hard road to heal and rebuild.

We are so lucky a neighbor has already purchased a wheelchair for his mother. If anyone wants to donate or share that would be incredible and so helpful for them. This has totally flipped their world upside down and it’s overwhelming navigating all that they have to do right now.

Statement from Val:

hello neighbors, this is Val Bianchet, the son of Mario and Marga, we lived in 8615. We escaped the fire uninjured.

We have seen the kind words and they are very much appreciated. We don’t have our computers or phones to see Facebook; we only have a phone that was loaned to us by an emergency service, but what has been shared with us from family friends is more kindness than we have known.

To explain the situation: We have been told that a fire broke out somewhere near our heater and traveled up the middle of our house to the attic. The fire alarms woke us around 5 AM and I barely had more than a minute to get myself and my parents out of the house before the floor began to give way. I was running between the open front door and my parent’s bedroom to get them out as quickly as I could. There was smoke everywhere, it was hard to see and it hurt to breathe. In that quick burst of chaos, I did not see whether our cat Rongo or our dog Bepi ran out of the house through the open front door and out of sight—I was solely focused on getting my parents away from the fire and banging on the neighbors door for a phone to call 911. Thank you so much, to our next-door neighbor Sabitha for what I’m sure must have been a terrible awakening. She lent us her phone and kept my mother out of the cold and gave us her own shoes and blankets. We were in our bed clothes, I was running back and forth in my underwear. We can never repay their kindness.

As I was on the phone with the dispatcher, I yelled his name into the house hoping he would come, but there was no response. It was too dangerous to go back and look him and at that point; I could see from the door the flames consuming the second story of our home. I presumed the dog was dead.

The firefighters searched the burnt out house after they managed to put out the fire, but found no sign of either of our pets. The heat from the flame was intense enough to burn blue at times and if they were inside it seemed like it would be impossible to make out their remains.

It is only after hearing that one of you saw him in the midst of the firefighting effort that I considered the possibility that he could still be alive. Again, I cannot honestly say that I saw either of them escape; that being said:

Bepi is a 5 month old puppy who is more than capable of barking loudly in distress and I heard no barking coming from the house at any point. The cat is an outdoor cat who has spent many nights outside of his own accord and often runs out the door between my legs without me even realizing.

I have no clue if either animal is alive. I cannot imagine the puppy did not follow me downstairs when I went to see why the alarms were ringing. I can almost imagine that the cat was already waiting for me to open the door to release the built-up smoke.

I am clinging to the possibility that they are both alive. It is hard to sleep at night thinking that they both died such a horrible death.

I am begging: if you see a pale blonde golden retriever of almost full-size with a blue collar, please make some attempt to lure him inside with any sort of food. He’s not picky, he loves ham. He is very friendly, but is still somewhat bite-y and not fully trained. The phone number on his dog tag is attached to a phone that was destroyed in the fire and I have not yet been able to get another, but If you alert my friend holly who can get in contact with me, I promise you will not have to keep him any longer than it takes to make the phone call, I would drop everything to retrieve him.

The cat will likely never approach a stranger, but I know where he likes to hide—under the shed in our backyard. So if you see a long-haired black cat around that area please let me know by contacting Holly. I’m checking the shed myself multiple times a day

As for donations:

We have homeowners insurance and were lucky to have been able to salvage two of our passports along with a few mostly unburnt photo albums from the ashes. The passports have allowed us to access our bank, but besides that we have nothing, not even keys to the car in the driveway. Our day-to-day right now is wholly occupied getting the logistics of our lives back; medications, communication, doctors appointments, transportation.

The trouble with donations right now is that we are in a hotel provided by our insurance with one car and no luggage to carry anything. We’ve been told to stay agile. As I understand it: the longer we stay here the more money they take out from our eventual entitlement. I’m honestly not certain how it all works. So for now it very hard to accept anything that we will need to carry out of here, and my mind struggles to even list the things we need. Once we have a more semi-permanent settlement it might make more sense.

What I really need at the moment is a wheelchair or some easily portable mobility scooter to take my mom around to buy clothes, if anyone in the area has one that they are not using that they could give to us or even loan for a few weeks it would be a huge deal, and I would be happy to pick it up myself.

Thank you for reading and your support, it felt in the beginning to be a very isolating experience, but knowing that there are people in our community who care, even a little bit, about our family’s struggle has meant more than you could know

-Val