Community Rallies Around Family of Five After Tragic House Fire

Calhoun Family, House Fire
WBST

An Indiana community helped a family of five rebuild their lives after their home burned down in February.

It all started when the family’s garage caught fire in February.

“I noticed the door to my garage was on fire, and there was smoke coming from the bottom,” Ashley Calhoun told WSBT. “It was at that point I panicked, but mommy mode kicked in, and we had to get out of the house.”

Smoke encompassed the house, and everything in the garage was damaged for good.

For the next two-and-a-half months, the family was displaced and had to stay in a hotel.

The Calhoun family just recently moved back into their home, but most of the items inside it have been donated by the community or her children’s school.

“Some of the people who have donated know us personally but a lot of people who did, they don’t, and it’s been amazing,” Calhoun said.

Some items came from a Facebook post that Calhoun did not know about until Thursday. She felt a sensation her family got when giving back to others last winter by assembling Christmas blessing boxes.

“To be the giver in this situation, it was amazing, but then several months later to be on the opposite end, to be the one needing the help, it was very … it put things in a whole new perspective for me,” Calhoun said.

Other communities have chipped in to help local families rebuild after going through a devastating house fire.

In March, a Texas community helped a family rebuild their lives after they went through a devastating house fire.

And in January, a Culpeper, Virginia, community donated thousands of dollars to a GoFundMe page to help a family who escaped from a house fire with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Not too far away in Bristow, Virginia, the community helped a family recover from a fire that totally destroyed their home in December 2020 by donating clothing and food items while also raising money through a GoFundMe account.

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