Leah's Home Recovery after Fire

On Tuesday, December 26th, 2017, one of my best friends Leah's house caught fire. 

Leah works two jobs, is working toward her master's degree, works with children that have Autism and other Spectrum Disorders, has a four year old son, and is one of my best friends.  We went to college together, lived together, worked together and she stood in my wedding as a bridesmaid.

She lived in a two story, two family home. She sat down for the first time in months to make jewlery, something she is passionate and incredibly talented at. The tank she uses to solder the jewlery caught fire.  As soon as she realized the tank was on fire she ran out of the house as fast as she could, leaving everything behind.  No one else was home, including her four year old son. Right after she got outside and away from the house the tank exploded, destroyed the house.  All expensive equipment was destroyed, gems, silver, tools, finished jewelry, household items, furniture, kitchen items, etc. The smoke was so bad that it damaged all belongings in the rest of the house.  The house is no longer liveable, upstairs or downstairs.  The firefighters had to smash six windows and cut a hole in the roof to let the smoke out.  There's several feet of water in the basement and all of the floor boards are destroyed and the remaining walls are completely black.  

Leah has been looking for a new place to live, but in the meantime has been forced to live in a motel.  The cost of motel living is adding up and it will be a hefty price to replace all that was lost.  Since it was a chemical fire, all the was not burned in the fire is contaminated and needs to be replaced. 

Donating items will also be accepted for her but they would need to be shipped directly to her in Rhode Island. Please contact me through this campaign to get the address. 

We are estimating that it would cost about $5000 to replace most items and cover costs to get her into a new apartment. FUNDS ARE NEEDED ASAP to get her out of a motel. 

Please help this single momma of a four year old get back on her feet after this devastating situation.  She works so hard to be the best mom, friend and employee she can be, she's been through so much in the last 5 years and anything helps!