Pictures of the fire devastation...a Photo essay

After I left work this morning, I stopped by the former home of my son-inb-law's cousin. Here are some pictures of the fire that occurred on Saturday afternoon. 

  This is the first sight I saw when I went down the road. This is the side of the house that the fire actually started on. These were the the kid's bedrooms.

The other end of the house. This was then end where the parent's bedroom was.

 This is a shot of the whole house.

 This is what is left of the parent's bedroom. When they went to see the damage yesterday morning and see what could be salvaged, they found people in there digging through the rubble trying to find anything they could steal!

 The kitchen, living room and front door where right in here.

 You can see the bed frames in this shot of where two of the the kids slept.

 Here is the other bedroom with bed frames.

I had stock piled a bunch of notebook paper a few years back when it was clearance and had bought a bunch of pencils and pens this year when school supplies went on sale. I am putting together a box of school supplies for the kids, so I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home and bought a few other items, colored pencils, markers, rulers, glue, cap erasers pencil sharpeners, pencil grips, etc. for the kids to help them out.

I also went over to the fabric department and bought three pieces of fleece (2 yards each) and I plan on making each of the kids a nice warm lap blanket. I will be donating a microwave that we don't use anymore andwas going to put into a yard sale to the family. My daughter is also supposed to come over and look through the clothes that we have for the yard sale to see if any of them can wear them. I have clothes that are too small for me and might fit the Melissa, the mom. Maybe the girls can wear some of the girls clothes, but I doubt it. My husband is smaller in the waist that Mark, the dad, so no dice there. Although he might be able to weat some of the winter jackets.

I have asked a very close friend of mine who has a local website to put up a few of the pictures of the home and to see if we can get some monetary donations so the family can buy some clothes for the kids. I hope that it all works out okay and that people will pull together and help the family as well as some of the churches and local resources. Red Cross has done a little to help, but they still need to contact The Salvation Army and Burke County Department of Social Services.  Right now they are staying with relatives, but none of the family has much to offer other than a roof over their head for the time being.

I wish we had more to offer them, but we don't. They are more than welcome to take anything we are getting rid of. It means less money in our pockets when we have a yard sale, but I don't care. This is a family that needs the help more than we need the money! And my husband agrees. They not technically be my family, but I feel like they are. (Kind of like you all our here in Gatherland!) The most we can all do is keep praying. Prayer is the strongest and best for this family. God will see them through. It is the children who really need to feel safe and secure right now, which why I am making the blankets!