One of the family members who escaped a fire that tore through their Beerwah home says that since losing everything the community’s support has been “overwhelming”.
The Mace family was left devastated after losing all their belongings and most of their Shaws Road home after lithium batteries that were charging caught fire last Sunday night.
Sascha Caelli, who shared the home with her partner Jayde Mace and Jayde’s parents Michelle and Russell, recalled the emotional moments after the fire broke about 7.30pm.
She and Ms Mace were in the kitchen making dinner when the TV connection fizzled out and the smoke alarm started going off.
“Jayde went down to the garage and saw smoke coming from the garage door, then she realised there was a fire and started calling out,” she said.
“We all went to look at the garage and realised how bad it was.
“At first, I was pretty concerned about Jayde and Michelle. Jayde has asthma and Michelle is recovering from a recent lung transplant, so I wanted to get them away from the smoke as soon as possible.”
Once outside all the family could do was watch on as the flames engulfed all but one room in the house.
“Flames started popping through the front of the garage and it then exploded … there was a petrol car in there too, so I was concerned about that.
“It didn’t really hit me how bad it was until the next morning, when it was safe enough to go inside.”
All but one of the family’s pets survived.
“Our bird got out and flew away … we found him and took him to the vet, but he unfortunately passed away,” she said.
The young women had been in the midst of looking to move into their own place but they lost all of their things in the fire.
“We are okay but it’s going to get harder as the weeks go on,” she said.
“Jayde’s parents are dealing with the insurance and that’s such a lengthy process – it will be months on months of waiting.
“It’s scary thinking about long-term accommodation and where we are going to live.”
Both women currently play in the Mooloolah Soccer Club’s senior team, the Mootildas, and each volunteer six hours a week to coach and manage the under-7s team.
Last Thursday, on behalf of the club, member and groundskeeper Gordon McGregor created a GoFundMe campaign to “urgently raise funds” to support the girls.
“Donations are also welcome in person to committee members,” Mr McGregor said.
So far, the campaign has raised more than $3500 of the $5000 target.
The club also announced it would be replacing the women’s playing kits so they could get back on the field without a financial burden.
Ms Caelli said the club’s support made her “feel like moving back to Mooloolah”.
“I can’t believe our soccer club did that for us,” she said.
“It’s funny because when I first put my hand up to coach the team, I felt like it would come back to me in a good way.
“Replacing our playing kits is so generous of them, because we lost all our gear.
“Jayde is at uni and I am an apprentice, so we don’t have much money … everything we brought we have worked so hard for.”
She said the short-term plan was to find stable accommodation for the family.
“Jayde has her final placement for uni coming up, so the donated money is really going to help,” she said.
“I can’t thank the club and Gordon enough … they’ve been amazingly supportive.
“Thank you to anyone else who donated, we are all so grateful.”
Earlier this week, Tija Mace also created a separate GoFundMe campaign on behalf of her mother and father-in-law, Michelle and Russell.
“They managed to escape the house on Sunday night without injury … however they only had the clothes on their backs and had to watch on in horror as everything they have worked so hard for went up in flames,” Ms Mace said in a statement.
“They need all basic necessities, clothes and a roof over their heads.
“Thank you … from the Mace family.”
So far the campaign has raised close to $4400 of the $5000 goal.
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