Kenny Helpman loses house in fire.

On September 13th I lost my house to a fire set by an arsonist. I did not have insurance. I was also badly beaten by the arsonist before he destroyed my home and killed one of my three dogs. The home was paid off and is a total loss. The only belongings that survived were my phone and belt. The detectives took my clothes I was wearing as evidence because they were covered with blood.  After spending the night in a level 1 trauma unit I was offered three nights in a hotel from The Red Cross.  The doctors have me on serious restrictions. No strenuous activities(including work), avoid bright lights/contrast(limit computer and TV), and very limited driving for about three weeks. This is because I have a serious concussion and have the equivalent of a sprained brained(sprained is the word he used). It's very difficult to rest when I have to work on getting back some sort of a life and home. My home was my passion. I am a remodeler by trade and was in the midst of remodelling my home. There isn't a possibility to rebuild or repair what's left of the structure. I am going to lose the property too as I can't afford to demolish it and will have to donate it to the city for a possible park.
I am currently staying in a place that is a fraction of the size of where I lived but I am alive and have my other two dogs with me. Now I'm back to paying rent for a place I don't own. My father spent some of his small savings to get me a bed to sleep on and a couple friends have helped to feed me and drive me to begin to replace everything I lost. Even my I.D. and debit card was destroyed.  So far I have toiletries and some cleaning supplies along with some cheap Wal-Mart clothes. Thankfully the Red Cross gave me some survial money and most of that went towards a new pair of glasses as those were destroyed by the guy who beat me. The beating has left me with constant headaches and almost any activity increaes the pain. Kind of hard to rebuild a life when I can't even go to the store without a driver and without increasing the pain. I have found out how the few hundred dollars I had in the bank only buys a little bit.
As bad as the injuries are I feel extremely lucky to be alive. I have a great group of friends that have helped me emotionally but their kindness doesn't replace material items. I can barely begin to list those items not can I rely on them to replace what was lost. It's daunting to even think of everything I no longer have.  Everything from lawn care stuff to jewelery to appliances to bed linens.

I have listed $1 as my goal because every dollar will help. I have personally estimated my loss to be over $100,000.00 and have no idea what the medical costs will be. At the time of this posting it has been five days. Five extremely difficult days.


Please see the link for the news report. I am the 48 year old and the 30 year old is the one who did this to me.nbc4i.com/2015/09/14/fire-in-south-columbus-injures-2/