ALLEGAN, Mich. — An Allegan couple is without a home for the holidays after a fire took out their home just days before Christmas.
"I feel lost," Stephanie Wilkey, one of the residents, said. "When we clocked out that's what we came home to, and we were not expecting to see our home completely burned out."
Zachary Sjoholm, the other resident, described it as: "An emotional roller coaster."
The fire also killed their eight pets — six cats, including some kittens, and two bearded dragons.
"All we can do is start from the ground up," Wilkey said.
The Allegan Fire District has not said what caused the fire yet, but the couple believes it could have been one of their space heaters.
"One was near the wood stove, which we never, you know have it running while we're at work," Wilkey said. "That one was near it so that our kitties were warm while they were gone, and the other one was right in the bedroom because we had three kittens in the bedroom."
Their coworkers, friends, and family are stepping up to help with donations.
"Our friends are providing for us," Sjoholm said. "Hotel staff actually gave us pots and pans and stuff like that."
A coworker's family also started a GoFundMe. As of Tuesday afternoon, it's raised about $130 of their $20,000 goal. The couple says the money collected from this will go to their basic needs.
"It's gonna go over a roof over our heads," Wilkey said. "It's gonna go for food."
The fire also burned up all of their Christmas presents, but on Tuesday, they decided to purchase a new present: adopting an emotional support cat.
"We both had a mamma cat, and Mamma Crayola was there," Sjoholm said.
You can donate to the GoFundMe to help the family at this link.
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