Help the Nguessan Family Rebuild After the Geranium St Fire
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$5,473 raised of $75K
47 donations
A fast-moving pre-dawn house fire has profoundly impacted the lives of three generations of the Nguessan family. With deep sorrow, we share that their beloved grandfather lost his life in the fire.
While DC Fire and EMS worked, the remaining six family members were transported to the hospital. We are incredibly grateful to share that the grandmother and the two youngest children (ages 2.5 years and 3 months) have since been released.
However, the road ahead for our neighbors is long and challenging. The mother, Jojo, the father, Paterne Kan, and their 6-year-old child remain hospitalized with severe burns and additional fire-related injuries.
They are currently being cared for in our region's top specialized intensive care units. They face a long and complex recovery process that doctors expect will keep them hospitalized for months.
Why We are Rallying for Them Right Now
Kan is a dedicated and well-loved classroom teacher at North Forestville Elementary School in Prince George’s County and the primary breadwinner for his family. With three family members facing months of intensive, specialized medical care, specialized treatment costs and daily hospital travel logistics will quickly outpace their resources.
Further compounding this, their two-story home suffered catastrophic fire, smoke, and water damage. The debris must be remediated and the house gutted and rebuilt. With city permitting and construction, this can take 12 to 18 months.
While the long-term insurance adjustment and structural rebuild costs are currently being evaluated, the household's immediate financial needs for relocation and daily care are pressing.
Where Your Donations Go
We are working directly with trusted family representatives to ensure 100% of these baseline donations immediately go toward:
- Memorial & International Transport Costs: Assisting the family with expenses required to honor their beloved grandfather locally and safely transport him to his final resting place in his home country.
- Medical Safety Nets: Covering the immediate and resetting multi-year out-of-pocket maximums for intensive medical treatments, specialized care, and long-term rehabilitation therapies.
- Caring for the Family: Ensuring the 3-month-old, 2.5-year-old, and their grandmother have clothes, food, diapers, and immediate daily necessities since they escaped with only the clothes they were wearing. Ensuring the needs of other family members are met when they are released from the hospital.
- Income & Displacement Gaps: Supplementing future income drops during recovery when medical leave is exhausted, and handling costs of relocating a family of six into long-term temporary housing for the next year that are not covered by insurance.
Other Ways to Support
Please consider sharing this page with your network. The Nguessan family has given to the community through teaching, kindness, and friendship. Let’s help bridge the gaps they face as they rebuild their life together after the fire.
We are staying in close contact with family representatives and will use this page to provide official updates on Kan, Jojo, and the oldest child’s recovery as well as overall family updates.
The family and their community thank you for your support.
You can read and watch the local news coverage of the fire here:
NBC4 Washington: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/man-killed-6-injured-in-takoma-house-fire/4166153/
7News WJLA: https://wjla.com/news/local/adults-children-hospital-geranium-house-fire-northwest-critically-injured-washington-dc