Kim & Onya's Fire Recovery Fund

Onya and Kim

The attic fire

The giant hole in the laundry room ceiling 

Living room after the fire

Hole through ceiling to the attic

Our sweet cat Nettles


Last Thursday night there was an electrical fire in the attic of our new apartment which has left the unit uninhabitable. Onya and I, as well as our cat, Nettles, are all safe and sound.

We had recently moved out of our beloved longterm home after 7 years in Highland Park, due to landlord's repossession of that property, and had been in our new apartment in South Pasadena for 3 days before the fire happened.  A fire broke out in the attic of our unit in the evening, however the smoke alarms did not go off. It was our neighbor who smelled smoke and alerted me about the smoke coming from the roof of our building. The whole event has been quite a shock and we are very lucky that this happened when I was awake in the early evening as the outcome could have been fatal had we both been home and asleep.

Damage

Fortunately, we did not lose everything. We were able to grab some personal items but all of our remaining belongings (mattress, linens, couch, clothes, kitchen appliances, printer, etc) are smoke and/or water damaged. 

Support

I own and operate a landscape design business and Onya is freelance arts educator. Neither of us have job security and have had to take unpaid time off work and turn down contracts in order to deal with this recent displacement. We share a home office/studio that we both work in part-time. That work space, and the entire house, is no longer available to us.

We are grateful for all of the generous support that friends and family have already shared with us in these first few days of recovery.

If you live in Los Angeles we need and will appreciate:

-Temporary accommodations on the east side of Los Angeles for two adults and a cat, ASAP (secure off-street parking is needed for Kim's truck and work tools)
-Share a meal with us!
-Help us pack and move again once we have a plan and place to live

If you live elsewhere (or nearby) we would greatly appreciate:

-Send love!
-Contribute with financial support through GoFundMe to cover living expenses, loss of income, replacing personal belongings, etc. 

Thank you for considering our request, 

Kim, Onya, and Nettles