Our family home has burned

Hello everyone... on Friday, March 15 our lives were were thrown into chaos.

Some of you know my family and I... for those of you who don't, I'm Matthew.... I have a beautiful wife Marla and a wonderful 3 year old Asha.

We have lived in Cheyenne WY for half a decade now. Many of the locals here would recognize me from my time working at a local coffee shop, and even more of you know my wife as the aquatics director at our local YMCA. We like going to our local farmers markets, playing at the park, and swimming when its too cold to be outside. Unfortunately, our lives have been turned upside down.

The details are a little unclear at the moment, but a fire started in the neighbors half of our duplex. It spread extremely fast... I had enough time to get my wife and daughter out. I was able to run back into the building once, and managed to find one of our three cats. I did not have time to save anything else before the building was engulfed in smoke and flames.

Our local firefighters and paramedics responded very quickly and did an amazing job with a terrible situation. They are a credit to our local community and we cannot put into words how much we appreciate their swift action. But as you can image, the damage was severe.

This is the back of our duplex where we believe the fire started.

This is what is left of my daughters room. Almost everything she owned is just gone. This fire burned hot enough that it vaporized plastic, reduced books to fine ash, and melted metal to slag.

Between the fire, water, and smoke damage, we have lost a considerable portion of everything we own. I was originally optimistic about what could be salvaged, but I didn't understand just how bad smoke damage could be.

Our families, friends, neighbors, and local community leaders have been wonderfully supportive. We have a place to stay and food in our stomachs, and thanks to the kindness of many people, my daughter has clothing and a few stuffed animals again. But it takes a lot of resources to rebuild a life after something like this.

We know just how tight money is for everyone right now. Believe me we do. But if you are able to help us out even a little, we would be eternally grateful.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story, and I wish God's blessings on each and every one of you.

-The Ichiyasus