Ya'll are truly amazing! Thank you all so so much for your kindness and support. I am so grateful <3

~ Update: Some unfortunate news. On Monday morning, almost exactly two months after the fire, I woke up to a text from my roommate, who informed us that the asbestos mitigation company had bulk tossed almost everything that survived.

A few weeks before this, the company had told us that they would pull everything out of the house, take meticulous photos of everything and create an excel document to list everything they found. From there we could choose what to keep & clean or toss. They assured us that absolutely NOTHING would be tossed without our permission.

Instead, they threw everything into the dumpsters. The charred drywall, doors, trim, nails, etc along with our unceremoniously disassembled furniture. My roommate’s beautiful old armoire, the leaves from her dining table, and matching dining chairs, all of which she had inherited from her grandma when she passed, had all been ripped to shreds and tossed in the dumpsters. No questions asked. They also emptied every single bin, tub, drawer, etc and everything from every room in the house into those same dumpsters. I asked one of the contractors if I could see the photos of our things, and found out they had only taken about 600 photos. So much for being meticulous. We had no warning. No communication from the company about what they were doing. It was the complete opposite of what they had told us they would do.

I got back up to the front range as quickly as I could. Over the last couple of days the workers were kind enough to go through the devastation for me. They found a couple of my paintings and sketchbooks and, more importantly, some of the letters and cards I have accumulated over the years from loved ones. I really hope the box of letters they found contains some of the final letters I received from my grandparents, but I couldn’t see the contents very well through the port hole. One thing is clear; Everything is pretty damaged from being thrown in with the rest of the house. To put the cherry on top, the asbestos company mistakenly sent my roommates a text pertaining to another house fire mitigation project they had done. This text laid out how they had successfully completed their excel doc/clean/toss process for this project, and that it was time to set a date/time to meet and discuss what to keep/clean/toss: The exact same process they were supposed to do for us.

I am grateful to everyone who has provided essential support over the last few days; My mom, my dad, my siblings, all of my lovely friends. I’m also so sorry for immediately trauma dumping on anyone who has come near me over the past few days. Thank you for your patience with me as I continue to try and navigate through this difficult time. ~

To those of you who have reached out, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Your kindness and generosity has meant more to me than you could ever know. Ya’ll are absolutely wonderful <3 To those who haven’t heard, the house I was living in caught fire a couple weeks ago. Thankfully, everyone is fine, and we had no pets. For that I am extraordinarily grateful. I have a place to stay: Shout out to Robin and Mark who have been absolutely amazing; taking me in and providing much needed emotional support through these difficult weeks. I can’t express how grateful I am to ya’ll.

~Update: We ended up finding out that the fire was actually caused by a faulty power surge protector. It shorted and ignited my roommate's desk and chair. ~

Everything I owned was in that house; All of my photos of family and friends, most of my family heirlooms, almost all of my art that I had made and been gifted, my hand-written/drawn notebooks, all of my clothing and outdoor gear that I have accumulated over the years, including new snowboarding and climbing gear, and so much more. Worst of all, the gifts I received from loved ones, and the last letters and cards I received from my grandparents. All gone. A few days after that, the house tested positive for asbestos in the ceilings and joint wall compound. This means everything that survived has to be thrown away or cleaned, all of which we’ll have to pay for. Originally, we thought that the homeowner’s insurance would cover all four of us. We were later told that no, the insurance only covers the policy holders, and that nothing that my roommate and I owned would be covered. Neither of us had renter’s insurance. Our rooms also happened to be the ones that were hit the worst. In an unfortunate coincidence, my seasonal job is ending in late November and I am about to be on reduced income for 3 months.

In another unfortunate coincidence, the day before the fire, my car broke down. My roommate was able to temporarily fix it, and I am able to limp it along, but it has broken down more times than I can count and I no longer trust it to make it over the mountains. I need to replace it, and soon, but even old, less reliable cars are over $12k, and I need something that can make it over Monarch Pass in the winter. (LMK if anyone has leads on any cheap, reliable hatchbacks).

I do want to say that the homeowners, who are good friends (and also roommates) of mine have been absolutely amazing during this difficult time. Helping clean the asbestos out of my car/searching for a new one and taking our other roommate and I shopping for essentials like clothes and toiletries, and so much more. They are absolutely wonderful, and I feel lucky to have them by my side during this difficult time. However, they have a lot on their plates, and also need the time and space to process what happened and figure out what to do next.

I would really appreciate any and all help with recovering from this. Even if all you can give is a share of this post, that would mean the world to me. Thank you all.