Lima Fire Department firefighters carry a ladder through the smoke while fighting a house fire at 975 Richie Ave. on Tuesday afternoon.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
LIMA — A house fire at 975 Richie Ave. around 2 p.m. Tuesday caused an estimated $50,700 in damages and displaced a family.
According to Lima Fire Lt. Jeremy Miller, the fire was possibly electrical and started on the first floor. The house was ruled a total loss. Two pets died, but no one in the family was home or injured.
One of the tenants of the house, Destiny Lewis, started a Gofundme page to help her family replace essential items. She included clothes sizes for the family; her two kids wear 3T and 7Y with shoe sizes 12 and kids 2; her husband wears 32/30 or large pants with a shoe size of 13; and she wears 12/13 or medium/large pants with a shoe size of 7. They also need pull-ups and wipes.
Donations can be dropped off at Lewis’s work, New Skin Tattoo, located at 1501 N. Main St., Lima, from noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m.
She wrote the fire was caused by old wires and started in her bedroom.
“We were just getting ready to be approved for a loan to buy our home that we have been renting to own for the last five years,” Lewis wrote.
On a Facebook post from the Lima Fire Department about the fire, Lewis wrote, “This house has been problematic and plagued with bad luck since we’ve moved in.”
Reach Charlotte Caldwell at 567-242-0451.
