On December 26th, our apartment building had a fire. My fiancé and I were displaced.

Around 11pm, I heard a fire alarm go off, and I thought someone was cooking and told myself I’ll wait for the 10th chime and then I’ll go down the hall. At the 10th chime, I opened the door and immediately heard people shouting, “Fire, fire.” I woke Maria, and we headed downstairs. As we exited the building, Maria was hit by burning debris and burst into tears. Thank God she has no visible injuries.

We crossed the street and looked up in horror as an entire apartment unit was in flames. A few minutes later, more people stumbled outside. I then noticed my glass-covered truck was directly below the fire and quickly moved it. In the next hour, the sidewalk and road would be littered with bricks and building debris, and the road blocked by fire trucks.

Crowds of tenants and neighbors waited on the street as 8 fire trucks pulled up and 40+ city employees fought the fire. We could see my grandma's Christmas tree still glowing through the window and prayed the fire wouldn’t spread. Decades of memories were displayed across our apartment, and priceless mementos from Maria’s hometown and passed loved ones were safely tucked in closets.

Firefighters fought the fire for 3 hours with many questionable moments where they had to scramble off the roof. We could hear yelling and cursing; it wasn’t going well. At one point, a firefighter was trying to evacuate, was in the flames, and was struggling to get back on the ladder. I was on the phone with my dad, and 5 times I said, “They did it. I think they’ve got it out.” Then the flames would shoot up again.

Around 2am, the fire was finally put out. We were given a number to call for the Red Cross, but given it was Friday night/Saturday morning, everything would be closed for 2 days. We walked to my truck with only the pajamas on our back. Where do we go now?

Thank you to the family and friends that let us couch surf the past 3 days. Thank you to the family friend that opened their second property to us today to rent and told us, “We will worry about money later.”

Thank you to the owner that let us back in the building (he wasn’t supposed to) and helped us salvage what we could and shuffle them into cars.

Thank you to the family and friends that drove to Chicago and offered their cars to load moist and smoke-filled belongings.

Today was the first day we could breathe and take a look at what’s next. We were very fortunate. Thank God no one was seriously injured, and we were able to get back in the unit. Our apartment was below the fire, so we had water damage while the tenants above lost everything in the fire.

Items abandoned:

With the holidays just passing, and my business entering slow season during the winter months, anything would be so, so helpful. We could never say thank you enough for the kindness and help in that moment of not knowing where to go or what to do next.

My thought was donations go toward our new home (landlord told us we can just move in) or we need to start thinking about what to replace first. Like a bed. Or if something specific, like chairs, you can tell us.

All receipts will be uploaded.

Thank you, thank you so much