INDIANAPOLIS — A family is displaced after a fire took over their home. The family had lived in the home for three generations, and now the community is coming together to help them.
Two weeks ago, Amanda Duffer’s near east side home caught fire.
“We lost everything in at least one of the back rooms,” Duffer said. “Especially because everything got burned and smoked and all that stuff. The whole upper floor has to be redone and all we could think was, oh God, what are we going to do?”
The exact cause of the fire was undetermined, but firefighters suspected it was an electrical fire. Thankfully, everyone was okay and no one was injured. Amanda, her two daughters, her sister and her mother all live in the home that’s been in their family for three generations.
“This is my home and I just want to go home,” Ruth Duffer, Amanda’s mother said. “I just wanna go home.”
Ruth has lived there for over 50 years, and is also battling cancer right now and undergoing chemotherapy.
“I don’t want to fight but I fight for the kids,” Ruth said “And then this happens, you know?”
The family unfortunately did not have homeowners insurance, so they’re having to make the repairs themselves.
“We follow the law, we do everything that we were supposed to do,” Ruth said. “So it’s hard there’s something like this would happen. It’s just hard.”
What keeps Amanda going, she says, as they stay in a hotel and try to slowly repair their home, “My mom’s wish of getting us all back underneath the house. And that I know needs to be done. It has to be done.”
“We’re getting a lot a little things from the church and we’re getting a lot a little blessings, and that’s good too,” Ruth said. “But we still need a lot.”
The near east side community has come together to form a GoFundMepage for the family.
