Miller community offers money, support after local house fire

The Miller community has rallied behind a local family that lost their home, belongings and pets in a recent house fire.
Roxanna Estes and Maddie Estes, longtime residents of Miller, faced many families’ worst nightmare on Dec. 5, mere weeks before Christmas, when their home burned down on their property on Lawrence 1140. The fire completely destroyed the inside of their home, making it unlivable and burning up all possessions left inside. The family’s dog and cats were not able to escape the fire. Roxanna said that she was told the source of the fire was a kinked-up extension cord plugged into an electric recliner.
Roxanna got the call that there was smoke billowing out of her home while at her daughter Maddie’s basketball game out of town.
“I thought, this has to be a bad joke; this can’t be real,” she said. That was the longest ride home ever.”
In a rush home, she arrived to see that fire crews were already nearly finished with their work.
This was a devastating loss according to Roxanna, but she found a silver lining in that she and her daughter were not at home, asleep, at the time of the blaze.
“I’m just thankful that we’re safe,” she said.
This was a tough ordeal for Maddie, as well, who is currently enrolled at Miller High School. But Roxanna said that Maddie has had much more fortitude throughout this trial.
“She’s so much tougher than I am,” said Roxanna. “She’s sad, but she just says, ‘Mom, it’s okay; we’ll get through this.’”
Aftermath hits, so does GoFundMe
After the fire, Roxanna began to stay with friends. At this time, a GoFundMe was started in Roxanna Estes’s name with a $10,000 goal. The charity drive was started by longtime friend Renea Hohenfeldt. The goal of the donation page was to raise enough money to secure them housing in the form of a travel trailer. Roxanna was aware of the page at the time, expecting a few donations, but she had no idea how much the people of Miller could give.
Soon, the donation collection soared above its goal, reaching more than $16,000 in donations to this point. In addition, the insurance, in what Roxanna described as a surprise, provided her with a recreational vehicle to live out of in the meantime.  
Instead of temporary housing, Roxanna can now use the GoFundMe donations to put toward meaningful steps to recovery. With the $16,000 in charitable contributions and her immediate housing taken care of, she can begin to make a move in the direction of more permanent housing, hoping to save for a builder or a modular home. Roxanna’s employer, Freeman Health System, has granted her extra PTO in order to help with the ordeal as well.
During her difficult time, Roxanna said that the kindness and support of the Miller citizenship has made all the difference.
“Everyone’s taking care of us, and I can’t imagine living in a better community,” she said. “This community we live in here is just amazing; they’re a family.”

To help
Those who wish to help the Estes family further can do so by contributing to their GoFundMe found at “Help Roxanna and Maddie Rebuild After the Fire” on the GoFundMe website. With all this support, Roxanna wanted to note how appreciative she is for the help.
“We are so grateful for everything and everybody,” she said. “God is good, and God is putting people in place to make things happen, and we are so blessed.”