Community supports family after home a total loss in fire

Days before Christmas, a Boone County family lost their home in a house fire. The Boone County Fire Protection District said the home is a total loss.

The family has a 2-year-old child, and because of the timing of the fire, the firefighters got together to buy the boy presents.

“The Boone County Fire District was able to purchase some presents for the 2-year-old and then set up a Go Fund Me for that family,” Assistant Chief Gale Blomenkamp said. “That is going really well for them.”

The Go Fund Me page has more than $2,000 in donations. The woman who started the page said the community has been very supportive of the family, offering monetary and clothing donations.

Blomenkamp said the presents to the child were something the district has done in the past.

“You know it’s just that time of year,” Blomenkamp said. “People suffer tragic loses around the holidays and it’s about the kids. So we wanted to be able to give back to them. They lost everything they had. So that family, obviously we wanted to provide them with a little bit of comfort in this time of need.”

Blomenkamp said the cause of the fire is still under investigation. However, he said they are leaning toward ruling it an electrical fire. Blomenkamp said many things can start electrical fires.

“It can be restrictive flow of the electricity through the wire, something being pinched, can cause resistive heating,” Blomenkamp said. “It could be old wiring. It could be a fault in the outlet. It could be a fault in the electric baseboard heater.”

Blomenkamp reminded residents having not only a working smoke detector but a fire evacuation plan at home is imperative to making it out safely.

“Schools do fire drills once a month for the entire school year,” Blomenkamp said. “How many times do people usually do them in their homes? Never. So when you look at fire deaths, people aren’t dying in schools. People are dying in homes.”

With many people having company for the holidays, he also reminded people to take precautions while entertaining in the kitchen.

“You can have extra people in the kitchen, you can have extra things going on,” Blomenkamp said. “Maybe you’re used to cooking one or two things at a time and now you’ve got four or five going.”

You find the link to the family’s Go Fund Me page here.