GoFundMe For Family Displaced By Needham Fire

NEEDHAM, MA — The community is rallying around a family who were displaced when a 5-alarm fire destroyed their Brookside Road Home Saturday afternoon. A GoFundMe page was created Sunday to help the family, and in just 24 hours, donations reached over $19,000, surpassing the $15,000 goal the campaign set.

The home belonged to Maria Gapotchenko, her three children, and her partner Peter. Gapotchenko works as a writing professor at Boston University, her friend and colleague Olga Livshin wrote on the GoFundMePage.

She described Gapotchenko as a "compassionate and hard-working teacher," and said much of the community also knows her kids. The fire destroyed most of Gapotchenko's teaching materials and her family's person belongings.

"The family lost most of their personal belongings and the home they have lived in for a decade, Livshin said. "Maria no longer has the books that she relies on to teach." Like many of us, on Monday she has to go back to work — and the children, to school."

As of 12:35 p.m., Monday, $19,637 has been raised. You can donate here.

Just before 3 p.m., fire officials began trying to knockdown the fire at 94 Brookside Rd. Fire officials said the fire was likely caused by either propane or aerosol cans exploding outside the house. Saturday's wind made the fire difficult to contain and forced firefighters to shift their focus to containing the fire to a nearby marsh. The house was a total loss after flames caused the roof to collapse. The family wasn't home at the time of the fire. Read more about the fire here.

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