Fundraising Drive For LI Family Who Lost Everything In Fire

EAST PATCHOGUE, NY — A family whose home and car were devastated in a New Year's Eve blaze have started a GoFundMe page in hopes it will help them get back on their feet.

The fire started just after 6 a.m. on Friday, damaging the Scherger Avenue home, as well as a car belonging to the Donegains. In an email, Gessica Johns said her parents were at a nearby hotel celebrating their anniversary when the fire broke out.

Her uncle was home, but he was in his room asleep, and her younger brother, Evan, "saw the bed was smoking in his room," she said, adding, that he retrieved a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the fire, but he was unsuccessful.

He then knocked on her uncle's door, beside his bedroom, "and yelled at him to jump out of the window" because "the house was on fire," she said. Evan then got his two younger sisters out of the house, but they ran back inside the house and he had to run back inside after them, Johns added.

"Once he was back out he brought the two girls around the corner to his best friend's house, then went back to wait for the fire department," she continued.

Despite the house being fully engulfed, everyone inside was able to get out safely, Johns added.

"They have lost everything and need help for basic necessities," she wrote on the GoFundMe page. "Whatever you can donate will help due to the fact that they have nothing and no car."

The family has three children, including a seven, eleven, and sixteen-year-old, and both parents "struggle with many medical issues," she said.

So far, the page has raised about $985 of its $5,000 goal.

Altogether, the blaze drew four different agencies, including the Hagerman and North Patchogue fire departments, as well as the Brookhaven Town Fire Marshal's office, and officers from the 5th Precinct responded to the fire.

The fire marshal's office is working to determine the cause of the fire, police said.

GoFunMe is a Patch Media partner.