Leach Family House Fire

Two months ago at 4:50am on Friday, June 16th my brother Lenny and his girlfriend, Kara, were awoken in our family home in Gates, NY by strange sounds and realized there was a fire. They immediately called 911 and went to leave the house but remembered they had Guinea pigs. They closed themselves in the Guinea pig room to avoid smoke getting in and Lenny worked on getting the window open, which included him needing to punch out the screen as it would not open. While he was dealing with the screen his girlfriend Kara frantically loaded their Guinea pigs into carriers. The first carrier was passed through the window to Lenny and the first police officer arrived on scene. Kara quickly worked to grab the others and was told to leave them but she would not leave without the pets. She was able to get the rest in one carrier, passed that through the window to Lenny, and the policeman and firefighter pulled her out the window.

 As they walked to the other side of the street they realized how bad the fire was - the entire garage was engulfed in flames and both of their cars parked outside of the garage were also on fire. The first Fire department arrived within 50 seconds of Kara’s phone call to 911 and they worked to put out the fire. Kara and Lenny were able to escape the home in about 3 minutes. Unfortunately 5 hours later the fire reignited in the attic and caused more damage, leading to the fire department pulling half the ceiling out of the kitchen and living room.

 The official Monroe County Fire report points to the brand new lawn mower battery as the cause. The mower had sat unused in the garage for about 3 weeks before the fire. Luckily, a security camera was able to catch the start of the fire.

 One week ago we found out that the home owners insurance that had been paid for nearly 30 years denied the claim on the dwelling and will not cover any repairs to the home. It took the home owners insurance 6 weeks to inform us of this decision, meanwhile we thought the home would be covered and planned on Lenny staying with us 6-8 months while we restored the home. We are devastated that the family home where my siblings and I were raised has suffered so much damage and that home owners insurance will not cover it. Please help me raise funds for my family who has experienced so much loss in the last 2 months. All donations will go directly to my parents, Lenny Sr. and Cindy, brother Lenny Jr. and his long term girlfriend Kara. Thank you so much!