My name is Gabriela Juarez. On May 21st, my family and I celebrated my little sister’s 5th birthday at our home on Boyd Acres in Bend, and just a few hours later, we watched it burn to the ground. In the middle of the night, my mom was woken up by an intense smoke smell and saw smoke outside her window. She ran outside to check and saw enormous flames coming from between our house and our neighbor's house. She ran back inside to wake me and my older sister up. She yelled for me but I didn’t wake up so my sister came in to get me. Their rooms are upstairs and mine is downstairs. She woke her, and then my sister ran down into my room to get me. In a split second, our entire house was in flames. I got out later just one second later than the two of them, following behind them, but in that second flames had already filled the doorway as I ran through. The flames grazed my back and arms. No clothes, no shoes, nothing with us. Not even my phone. We ran to the end of the driveway and watched our entire life of memories go up in flames. We saw our neighbor's house in flames, and my sister went to make sure they were okay. We are so grateful for the help of the neighbors, paramedics, and firefighters. We all made it out alive, and my burns are minimal, but we lost everything. Our childhood home, almost 18 years of memories.

I cannot thank God enough that she had gone to our grandma's house after the birthday party and in turn wasn’t there during the fire. Our ring camera showed the entire front doorway continue to go up in flames as soon as we ran out. Watching everything burn was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through. We did not barbecue, use a grill, or anything of that nature. We still have no idea how this happened and are waiting on any possible information from the investigation, but with the fire being a total loss, it is hard to tell.

Right now, we are trying to figure out a place for the four of us to stay more long-term since my grandma's house doesn’t have much room. We are able to borrow family members' cars for a while, but we still need to buy my sister a new car seat, and clothes and shoes for all of us.

ANY resources or help possible is greatly appreciated. We are lucky to be alive. Thank you so much Bend for your kind words and prayers. The only thing salvageable from my room was my Bible.