Christmas After Fire

“You drive out of the house and come back and you don’t have a home and you don’t have anything left. Within an hour you’ve lost everything!”– Lacey*

Lacey and her two youngest children were just sitting down on a hospital bed when the call came. Their home was in flames – and the caller urgently wanted to know if there was anyone still inside.

Lacey (who is helping to care for her children’s dad who has serious health problems) had just driven him to hospital for treatment. They ran back to the car and made a panicked dash home. They were in time enough to watch the fire fighters save part of their rental home. However, with smoke and toxic flames, few possessions survived.

“You get there and it’s really happening, [right] in front of your eyes,” she says.

When all is lost

As well as losing their home, their furniture and possessions, including all the children’s toys, Lacey lost many of the Christmas presents she had scraped and saved to buy.

“I have been in for help to the Salvos at Christmas a couple of times [over the years],” she says. “But this year I was so proud because we were not asking for anything."

“I had all the Christmas presents. I did shopping back in July when specials were on. Most of them got ruined in the fire. We couldn’t give them to [the kids] with toxins and smoke damage.”

Homeless for over five weeks after the fire, and having lost almost everything, the distraught family stayed with different friends, before finally moving into a new rental a week before Christmas.

Lacey laughs quietly when you ask if she has had battles in life, and says “she sure has”. While she doesn’t talk much about her past it is clear she has struggled to get on top of many issues, and that stability for her family is her greatest priority.

“You just have to move forward to keep everyone together and give your kids a home. You do what is best for the kids,” she says. “I had meltdowns a couple of times [after the fire], but I wanted to show the kids we could get through this and be strong and we could do it.”

Rising from the ashes

When a local Salvation Army centre organised toys for the kids and some clothing vouchers from their family store, Lacey was very grateful.

Then, when a friend who volunteered with a neighbouring Salvos family store suggested the store donate a second-hand lounge and kitchen chairs to Lacey and her family, Lacey’s gratitude grew.

“We went in thinking we were only going to get help to get a couch – we had no furniture and no insurance money,” says Lacey. “But they gave us a $600 voucher to spend [in the store] and that paid for the couch, chairs and much more. They also gave us a $500 gift card per adult and a $150 gift card per child – and that was beyond enough.

“My friend also put out on Facebook what had happened and all my kitchen stuff, except for the microwave, toaster and kettle, was donated. The bigger things, a vacuum cleaner and pots and pans, we bought with the money the Salvos gave us.”

The true spirit of Christmas

Lacey says that Christmas was a lovely day, despite the trauma of the five-plus weeks before.

“My kids were happy – that was the main thing,” she says. “We were happy we had a house and we could spend the day together as a family.

“If we had Christmas without help from the Salvos and community, we would have had nothing. No Christmas presents – and all in an empty house. [My kids] wouldn’t have even had a bed to sleep on.”

Lacey says the support from The Salvation Army and her community meant her family could keep going with the life they had worked so hard to build, and not have to go back to square one.

“That kindness [from the community and donors] makes a big difference – it does – a big, big difference. They helped us so much,” she says.

*This is a true story. Name changed for privacy.