Early in the morning on October 28th, around 1 a.m., a fire broke out in a building on my grandma’s property. This building held the wood stove water heater that provided all the heat and hot water for the house. It also had an attached shed with what felt like a lifetime’s worth of tools, power tools, hardware, and things my family has depended on for years.

Before anyone could even process everything that was burning, an argon welding tank inside the building exploded. The force of it knocked my grandma to the ground, shattered the windows of the house, and caused another building to catch fire. It was terrifying and we’re grateful everyone is alive.

The aftermath has been incredibly hard. They currently have no hot water and no heat except for a couple of space heaters. As winter approaches, that’s simply not safe. My grandma has multiple health issues, including limited mobility, diabetes, and heart disease. She was just recently released from the hospital after a long stay. It is dangerous for her to be in a cold home without hot water.

My aunt, who is a nurse, lives there too, along with her two kids. One of them is in a wheelchair right now due to a recent four-wheeler accident that caused a brain injury (which she did recover from) and a broken ankle. They’re all trying their best to hold everything together, but this is more than they can manage on their own.

We are asking for help to get the house back to a livable condition: getting the hot water and heat restored and replacing some of the essentials that were destroyed. We understand that the bigger items, even though they hold a lot of memories, are not the priority right now. Those will have to be figured out later as a family.

Anything at all helps, even sharing this means a lot to us. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for caring during such a difficult moment for our family. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.