Our dear friend Curtis lost his home and belongings in an electrical fire last week. The fire was mostly contained to a few rooms of the house but Curtis's bedroom was one of them. This sucks! He lost clothes, books, electronics, irreplaceable personal items, and most importantly he lost the place he spent the last two years making into a home. Thankfully Curtis was there doing laundry downstairs when it started and able to alert the fire department before the flames spread to the rest of the house or to neighbors homes. Unfortunately Curtis is now left overwhelmed and scrambling to rebuild his life and find a new home in the Bay Area (this isn’t easy even when time and stress aren’t factors!)



Nobody deserves it when these things happen, and especially not Curtis. He’s one of the most giving and selfless people I’ve ever met, always blasting love beams and good energy to the people around him. He brings donuts to work. He gives a shoulder rub or a good hug or a ride home if you need it. He will teach you yoga or ecstatic dance. He’s just a really good guy and he could use our help.



Curtis is a Bay Area native and is one of thousands directly harmed by the current housing crisis. He was renting a room in a house that, like many in the Bay Area, had an infrastructure that had long been neglected by the landlord. Like most electrical fires, the one last week occurred because of old and outdated appliances, wiring, and circuit breakers. Because of the shortage of housing and extremely high demand for a place to sleep in our area, many landlords know they’ll be able to fill a room even if the building is not up to code or safe to live in. While we work to raise awareness about these troubling and dangerous issues in the bay, let’s also do what we can to extend our help to Curtis. *so he can get back to the dancing and love beam blasting!*



It's difficult to swallow one's pride and be open to help from others, but I know that if Curtis had a friend take a hit like this, he would do everything in his power to help them get through it.



We are hoping to raise money to help Curtis:

*Replace some of his clothes and belongings

*Relieve some of the financial burden of having to find a place to sleep very last minute in an already crazy expensive housing market

*Be able to buy food while he doesn't have a kitchen to cook or store food in

*Find necessary psychological counseling after surviving and enduring the trauma of being in a house fire



Thank you for whatever you can give! Anything helps.









If you'd like to keep reading, below is a first hand account of that morning in Curtis's own words:



"Everything changed for me Tuesday morning.



My room, along with two other bedrooms, were on the top floor and the common areas of the house were downstairs, so I had gone to the basement of the house to fold some laundry that I had done earlier that morning. I had just woken up from a short nap and was the only one home. I remember as I folded my laundry feeling that my throat felt a little scratchy and clogged, and I thought maybe I was getting a cold or something. Just then I heard the fire alarm screech and I felt so startled and confused. I ran upstairs and saw flames bursting out of my housemates room, the one sharing a wall with mine. The whole upstairs was filled with smoke and I could barely breath. My mind went into fight or flight and I ran inside my room, grabbed my passport, and ran downstairs and out the side door, terrified for my safety the whole time.



I called 911, and when the fire department arrived I realized that I was the only one there who knew the bizarre layout of the house. I explained to them that going up and around the back of the house was the best route to get to the floor the fire was on. I watched for the next hour as the firefighters bravely contained the fire that was already starting to spread to some of the surrounding trees. When it was finally over and they came out of the house, the man whom I had told to go around the back told me that if I hadn't stopped them from going in through the front, it could've potentially been very dangerous for whoever was climbing up those stairs. He also mentioned that when they got to my room, they realized they had forgotten a hatchet so they used my skateboard to break the window in order to toss things out of the room.



The whole day was kind of a blur, and I'm still trying to process what this means for me; financially, physically, mentally. I'm honestly just glad no one got hurt and that the fire didn't spread to any neighbors' houses. It could've been way way worse. I really want to stay in the Bay, but living out here is so expensive that after a loss like this, I'm not really sure what to do. I've been so lucky to have friends reaching out and offering me places to crash, but I really just hope I can get back to some type of normalcy and get my life back on track."

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