On Saturday, August 15th around 12:30pm - my two roommates and I were alerted by neighbors frantically knocking on our front door, that our house was on fire. We only had enough time to grab our four dogs. We watched our entire second floor, where all three of our rooms are located, burn to the ground from the safety and hospitality of our neighbor’s front yard. We have lost our home and almost everything we owned.


Our home is a historical home located in Lancaster, CA that was built in 1914. It’s most known for its most famous resident, Judy Garland, who was better known as Francis Gumm at the time she lived there from at least 1929 - 1932 . My mother purchased this house in 2011 right after the housing crisis, while the house was in foreclosure.  Over the last 9 years, my parents put their heart and soul into restoring this house. We ripped up carpets covering 100-year old original wood flooring, my mom tiled the downstairs bathroom by hand, restored the balcony we had heard so many stories of Francis tap dancing on. My parents are both educators (first grade and seventh grade history) and spent every evening and weekend they could working on this house. It was a labor of love.


We are waiting on the fire investigators from LA County Fire Station 33 to determine the cause of the fire, but we have been told by multiple firefighters that they believed it was most likely an electrical fire. There are power lines (that didn’t belong to us) that have fallen that used to hang right above our second story balcony, where the fire supposedly started.

Any money raised by this fundraiser will be used to support rebuilding our lives and recovering from such a devastating fire. 2/3 will be given to Katie Ralstin and Travis Kelly find housing and start to replace their clothes, their bed, and everything they owned. 1/3 will be used to support me and my parents while they feed and house me over the next few months while we rebuild our house. Katie, Travis, and I are furloughed employees at Six Flags Magic Mountain and only have unemployment as our current income. Any donations, no matter how small, are appreciated beyond words. We thank you so much for reading our story.