At around 1:00 am on December 16, 2025 a fire broke out on the first floor of our son, Matthew Nighbert's apartment building in uptown Chicago. Matthew's apartment was on the second floor of the 3 story building and the fire spread quickly in the 100-plus year old building. With smoke rapidly filling his apartment and his neighbor below screaming, Matthew quickly picked up his 2 cats and got them out of the building using the outside stairway. He realized other residents above may not yet have been awake and ascended the stairs, knocking on windows of apartments to awaken sleeping residents. He had no time to return to his apartment to even grab his wallet or cellphone and escaped with only the clothes he had quickly thrown on and his coat. All of his possessions were completely destroyed: the entire column of apartments completely collapsed from the roof down and everything therein was lost .

Matthew stayed at a Red Cross Center in Chicago for a few nights then had to rent a hotel room for several nights. He stayed temporarily with an acquaintance and is now temporarily staying at another location, but only can be there for a short time. Both of his cats have now been found and are being temporarily fostered.

Matthew will have to replace everything he owned: clothing, shoes, bedding, furniture, kitchen items. His custom BMX bicycle, valued at over $3000 was destroyed in the fire . Matthew is also an accomplished snowboarder and, lost in the fire was a commercially produced snowboard for which he designed the graphics. Matthew is a lifelong artist and all of his works, along with art supplies, were lost.

Matthew is searching for a new apartment and needs funds for a security deposit. He is has to buy all of his meals at restaurants until then. He has considerable expenses for transportation while apartment searching and getting reestablished.