Help towards costs of getting back on our feet

Hi everyone,

A few days ago we had quite an horrific experience. A fault in our fridge caused a fire in our kitchen.

I was weeding the garden out front and had gone in to check on youngest who was watching Peppa. On my way back outside I heard a pop which I assumed was our trusty fly zapper getting a kill, but it didn't quite sound as sharp. Dismissing it I went to head back outside when I smelt a really strange electrical burning smell.

I immediately went to the outhouse to check the tumble dryer, which was fine, and initially the smell was stronger outside the house so I had a look but couldn't find a source. When I went back in the kitchen to continue the search there was a thin trail of smoke in the corner of the kitchen. I couldn't work out where it was coming from and I could hear the crackly sound of electrics. Deciding immediately it was beyond my expertise I gathered our five children up, our dogs, my phone and went outside the house to call for help.

By the time the fire department got to our home, it had gone from a small trail of smoke to full blown fire. We are obviously most thankful that our kids, our animals and the vast majority of our home survived unscathed.

Since that horrific experience we've had so many people contact us with well wishes and expressing a wish to help out anyway they can. We are so grateful for all of you and wanted to open an avenue so that there is a way of helping, at least for now, while we work out the extent of what's been lost.

Any monies given will go directly to the costs of being displaced and not having a working kitchen to hand in the immediate term, and then toward replacing some of the items that were lost. Anything and everything is obviously greatly appreciated and we want to express our sincere thanks to our neighbours, friends and family who have been supportive at this time and really reached out to us to help.

We love you all.

Theresa and Allan.