Family thanks community for support after devastating house fire
CAMBRIDGE, Md. – A young family is left devastated, after their entire home went up in flames on Monday morning. The family tells 47 ABC they bought it less than 2 years ago and were raising their 3-month-old daughter there. They say they never imagined this is how things would go. But they’re even more shocked by how many people are reaching out to help them.
“This is the kind of stuff I watch on the news and never expected to happen to me,” says Jonathan Nicholls, one of the homeowners.
Nicholls, and his girlfriend Kelsey Gross tell 47 ABC, they can’t believe their entire home is gone.
“She opened the door to check and when she did just smoke, flames, everything crawled over the top of the door frame,” says Nicholls.
Overnight, their home on Pungy Path Road caught on fire. “Within minutes, it was just engulfed in flames,” says Kelsey Gross, one of the homeowners.
Luckily the couple, their 3-month-old daughter Kacie and her grandmother made it out safely.
“He yelled ‘fire’, got the baby, got the dogs out and took off out the house,” says Gross.
Immediately, the family says, they were surrounded by neighbors offering to do whatever they could to help.
“By the time we got out to the street, they said they were already in contact with 911. Let them know what was going on. It wasn’t just one. It was multiple neighbors who said that,” says Nicholls.
Now they tell 47 ABC, they’re counting their blessings. “Be grateful for what you have because I mean in an instant it could all be gone with out any say,” says Nicholls.
The family says this could have been much worse. “Someone was looking down on us. Because we could have died,” says Gross.
Another unexpected blessing, the family says, is how people they don’t even know are reaching out to help them.
“We had people coming from all over. Never seen them before in our life. More than willing to help which is awesome,” says Nicholls.
The family says the silver lining in all of this is how supportive the community has been. They tell 47 ABC they ran out of the house with just the clothes on their backs, so they’re basically starting from scratch.
The State Fire Marshall says the exact cause of the fire is still under investigation. The grandmother was treated for smoke inhalation but fortunately she’s doing fine now.
Safe Chain Solutions, where Nicholls works, started a Go Fund Me that’s already reached almost $3,000. Click here for that Go Fund Me Page.
The family is also accepting donations like clothing, housewares and baby supplies.
- Baby Kacie wears size 0-3 month clothes
- Kelsey wears small or medium clothes
- Jon wears XL shirts and 32/32 pants
If you’d like to donate any physical items, you can drop them off at the following address, for the time being:
Safe Chain Solutions
822 Chesapeake Drive
Cambridge, MD 21613
