Imagine building a lifetime of precious moments and memories piece by piece, over many years, in a loving home. Imagine working every day to keep a roof over your head for you and your family to feel safe, secure, loved, and comfortable. A home is the greatest asset to have, beyond family, friends, and loved ones. No one anticipates for their entire life to go up in ashes in a matter of minutes. For a loving family of 10, this was sadly a devastating reality for us on the early morning of friday, January 9th, 2026. I vividly remember getting up kissing my husband goodbye before he went to work. He specializes in transportation for children with special needs to school during the week. I usually stay home since early 2019, and I have been disabled. I suffered a brain tumor and needed surgery, as well as some other health issues. Then, shortly after he left, I remember watching my five grandkids get on the school bus and waving goodbye. One of my grandkids stayed home, not feeling well, and my son and his fiance were off work and home upstairs, along with our two dogs. I felt in my heart and soul that God had a purpose for me on this day. I was very tired, but I felt that exigency to stay awake, so I laid in bed to watch tv, another episode of Heartland. All of a sudden my internet went out. As I got up and out of my bed to see what caused the outage, my smoke detector started going off. Now I began to panic, and walk faster towards the living room, in the front of my house, it was quickly filling with heavy smoke, the couch was in a blaze of fire, and my windows began to break. My son was taking one of our dogs out the back door. I began screaming, to my son, Our house is on fire!! He races back upstairs to save his son and fiance. In a matter of seconds, police officers are at the back door telling us to hurry and get out of the house. I had no shoes on, and not enough time to grab them or my cane. The police escorted me down my stairs safely. My son took off his shoes to put on my feet. Thank God the four of us and our two dogs, Lola and Bear, got out alive and safe. The fire department told us the fire started from the right corner of our porch, and it was an accident. I'm still confused about that. Two of our cars parked in the driveway also caught on fire. My name is Tamika Ward, and I am sharing our family's tragedy in the hopes of finding those who have the means to help with basic necessities for our family, we so desperately need at this time. We unfortunately lost everything. It was even harder to get our grandkids out of school early and tell them all of their clothes and toys are burned and gone with the house. The looks on their faces and reaction was so traumatic and distressing. We had the house paid off and didn't have home insurance because we couldn't afford it. If you are able to help, please share and / or donate anything that would be appreciated.