A COMMUNITY event in Rhyl helped raise hundreds of pounds to support 11 relatives who lost their home in the town following a house fire last weekend.
Abbi Cash-Francis, 25, and her four children (aged between five months and four) were among the 11 in the house, a former bed and breakfast on River Street, when the fire started due to a faulty cooker on the evening of Friday, July 15.
The 11 people were unharmed, though some were not discharged from hospital until the following morning due to smoke inhalation, and the two dogs living in the property sadly did not survive.
On Saturday (July 23), a fundraiser event at The Swan Inn, on Russell Road, raised roughly £300 for the family, who were left with nothing after the fire.
Organised by two of Abbi’s closest friends, Nathan Boardman and Kaylea Mason, the event featured an auction, live entertainment for adults and children, and a raffle.
This money raised is in addition to the combined £2,795 donated across two GoFundMe pages, set up by relatives who did not live in the Rhyl house.
Abbi, who was at Saturday’s fundraiser with her partner, children, mother, sister and brother, expressed her gratitude at the generosity continuing to be shown to her and her family.
She said: “It went really well. When I left, they had raised £300; loads of local business made donations, as well.
“Everyone’s doing OK. All of us are still alive, which is the important thing.
“My partner, our children and I are in homeless accommodation, but we’re moving into a hotel through our insurance company. Everyone else will be getting to hotels soon.
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Donations urged after house fire destroys Rhyl home of 11 relatives and kills dogs
“It’s happened, and there’s nothing we can do about it now, except try and move on.
“Everyone’s been really kind; we’re planning on renting a house, so when that happens, we’re going to have to replace everything.
“Everyone’s donations are going to help us a lot. We were planning on using it (donations) to rent somewhere to live.
“People have donated more than enough of everything, really. Some of it, my sister has given to charities, if they were clothes that were the wrong size, or things like that.
“When we find somewhere to live, we’ll need things like furniture, but we’ve got everything we need right now.”
You can still donate to the fundraiser pages at: www.gofundme.com/f/my-familys-home-burned-down-anything-helps and www.gofundme.com/f/house-fire-left-family-with-nothing-at-all.
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