On the morning of Friday, October 17th, 2025, I woke up at about 8:30am to my upstairs neighbors making an unusual ruckus. They aren't the quietest bunch as it is, but the running and stomping had a sense of urgency to it, it felt different this time. Within about 30 seconds, the building fire alarm started going off, and I knew something must be up. I threw on a pair of pants and ran to the hallway, looked up the stairs and saw a significant amount of smoke pouring out of their apartment.

Several people were frantically running in and out of the smoke-filled apartment with pots of water. I shout out "FIRE EXTINGUISHER", and one of the guys met me in the stairwell as I handed him one from the hallway downstairs. I asked, "Did you call?!?(the fire department)" and the response was a definite "YES!". I ran back to my floor to grab a couple belongings, and started banging on my next-door neighbors' doors in case they were home and unaware. By this point, plenty of smoke had come down the stairs into our hallway. We all escape together out the back of the building, and the fire department arrived within about 5 minutes. Two of the upstairs tenants were trapped and, before addressing the fire itself, the fire department had to do an out-the-window ladder-assisted rescue.

Everyone got out okay, save for a cat which was found alive in the building a week later. I called my work to fill them in, checked in with my neighbors, and talked to the nice folks working with the Emergency Support Services. They instructed us to meet up at the local evacuation center to help us receive a 1-time payment of $1,000CAD to help with food, shelter, and toiletries for the next 3 days.

Well, it's officially been 2 weeks, and here I am.

Little bit about myself: My name is Matthew Murphy, I'm 35 years old, grew up in Nashville, TN but I've been living in BC Canada for the past 14 years. For my day job I work 25 hours a week at a local restaurant, and I've also been doing an online livestream 4 days a week(25-30hrs) for the past 3 years as my other part time gig. We mostly play GeoGuessr and talk about/review music on a regular basis. We have fun. While it's not exactly the most lucrative gig, it's been helping me pay my bills and keep my life relatively stress-free for a few years now. I've made and visited friends from all around the world because I've decided to stick with this little hobby of mine. It's pretty integral to who I am today.

Since the fire happened, everything has been flipped upside-down indefinitely. Fortunately, I am staying at a friend's place, but it's quite small and it's not easy to feel comfortable while stepping all over someone's else's living space. I'm unable to do my livestream from here. I've been able to get in to my apartment on 2 separate occasions as of writing this, both times in a frenzy to grab as many clothes, valuables, and sentimentals as possible since we're not allowed in for more than 15 minutes on account of the carcinogenic fumes. Much of my furniture is ruined due to smoke and water damage, but some of the most essential items were left relatively unscathed. According to the landlord, my apartment received the "2nd-most" amount of damage outside of the unit that caught fire, which is completely destroyed.

Restoration crews arrived at the site and got my key off of me just a few days ago. As it stands, I'd be lucky to be back in my apartment by the New Year, but that remains up in the air.

So, down to why I'm here on GoFundMe. Well, several people from my livestream community have inquired on when I'd be starting a fundraiser and where they can send donations to help me while I'm displaced and awaiting restoration. It's taken me 2 weeks to get this started because I've never done one of these before and I didn't want to start a fund without any clue on what exactly I'd be needing, or when I'd be able to return to my normal life. Until a week ago, I wasn't even aware of the extent of the damage to the apartment itself, or any of the belongings therein. Now that I've assessed the damage, seen the extent of what I've lost, and have some kind of timeframe on when I'll be able to get back to my regular life and my livestream, I feel better asking for help.

Please know I don't ask for help easily. I've talked to several friends and family members about how I even quantify what I've lost in this event, because I truly don't know how to define what it's "worth." It's not just property damage and ruined furniture. It's the shifts I've missed from my only-remaining part-time job. It's the 50+ hours of livestreams I've missed in the 2 weeks since, it's in the hours of planning community events for the month of October, and any earnings that might come from that. It's in the stress of the event itself and the anxiety and neck pain I've developed since. It's any potential future loses on hours of working as a result of this experience or any future unforeseen expenses. It's the days I'll have to spend removing furniture or sorting through my living space to find what's ruined and what's salvageable. It's in not knowing when I'll even get to go home and get life back to normal.

So the funds I'm asking for are kind of 3-fold: Some of which will go to ordinary daily costs of living like groceries, gas money, and bills. Some of which will go toward any lost hours of employment during this time, and to any services I might be needing to take care of myself in the interim. And some of which will be going towards home furnishings when I'm finally allowed back in to my apartment.

Anything you choose to donate would be sincerely appreciated. While I don't anticipate to hit my goal, I was also worried about shooting too low in the case of unknown future costs related to this experience.

Also like I said, I've never done this before but I intend to do my best to make regular posts here and keep people updated as time goes on.

Thanks for making it this far, and thanks for being you.

-Murph