Help Claire After an Apartment Fire

On Monday, September 16th my sister Claire was woken up to a beeping sound and when she went to investigate noticed that kitchen was filling up with smoke.

She opened her back door to find where the smoke was coming from and saw flames coming up from the unit below her.

Claire woke up her partner, called 911, and ran out the front door, through the alley and returned to the back porch to extinguish the flames they could on the lower porch. They saw the flames were coming from inside the unit below, so ran back up to Claire’s to get kittens Marcus and Earl out safely.

The fire in Claire’s unit was contained mainly to the furnace room and kitchen, but her entire apartment is smoke damaged now. Claire and the cats are staying with our parents indefinitely, as she waits for the insurance company to finish their end of repairs, including ozone filtering her apartment and repainting the interior.

As the smoke damage was so severe, Claire now has to replace several big ticket items in her apartment - couches, her mattress, bedding, rugs, a majority of her clothes will need to be professionally cleaned.

It’s hard to ask for help, especially financially, but everyone needs help sometimes and right now Claire could really use a hand.

The cost of living makes day to day expenses stressful as is, but with such a huge unexpected event like a house fire thrown in, it can feel very easily feel insurmountable.

Any amount you’re able to contribute would be genuinely appreciated, and incredibly helpful in laying for bigger ticket items as well as small things like fuel for the commute from our parents’ to work, restocking the fridge and freezer after the fire department had to cut power to the kitchen for a day, cleaning costs for smaller porous items still holding the smoke. If venmo is an easier mode of donation, she is @clairegilby .

I’m probably biased but I can’t think of many people more deserving of a helping hand than Claire. She’s dedicated her career doing valuable work for various underserved and overlooked communities, but in true nonprofit fashion her salary rarely provides a decent living wage.

Traumatic events really remind us of the importance of community and communal support and living across the world from Claire means I can’t be that hands on community that she so desperately needs right now. So, I’m asking for help in the most practical way I can think of right now, from her, and our, wider community of family and friends.

Thank you; thank you, thank you from a little sister who wishes she could be doing more right now!