We Lost Our Entire House in a Fire

Hi, my name is Haylie. I came home from school at FIT for spring break on March 31st and the following morning, my family and I lost our house in a fire. TDLR at the end.

We don’t know how the fire started yet. It began on our outside porch in the back. I woke up with my dog in my room at 8am, and within five minutes my mom was screaming from downstairs to call 911. I looked outside my window and our back porch was ablaze. My father was trying to put it out with a hose, but before we knew it, it caught on the house. As I made the 911 call, I ran to the wake up my brother in the attic. By the time we both got to the second floor, thick black smoke was covering the staircase. We had to force our two terrified dogs down the stairs and run out of the house. We all left in pajamas with no shoes, without knowing in a few hours that this would be some of the last of our belongings.

We watched our house go up in flames and become completely incinerated for the next four and a half hours. Thankfully, by this time some neighbors gave us warmer pairs of clothes. The house burned swiftly because of the wooden frame and 40mph winds that fed the fire. Going inside the house after the fire broke me. My room and the attic, where my brother sleeps, got the worst of it. In my room, nothing was salvageable except for my house keys and my bed frame, which bent a bit out of shape. My brother only was able to get a ring from his room. My younger brother also lost everything in his room— including his beloved fish he had in his fish tank. My parents’ room our important documents, but other than that they also lost everything. My brother’s friend Mark lives with us as well and thankfully he was at work at the time, but he was only able to recover his laptop and hard drives. The only part of the house that survived was half of the basement, where my younger brother keeps his reptilian friends. The first thing I did was have FDNY check if they were alive, and thankfully they were completely unscathed.

The house was around 115 years old, and was a historic house. It was one of the last of its kind and was build by a prolific architect at the turn of the 20th century. Because everything was built out of old wood, it was completely ravaged by the flames.

My family and I need your help to rebuild our lives. The funds will be used for clothes, furniture, a new housing situation, and generally getting back on our feet.

TDLR: My family lost our historic house in a four hour long fire. Funds will be used to rebuild our lives and (hopefully) rebuild our house.