Three days before Christmas, Emil Repack lost his Salmon Valley home and pets to a fire.
Everything inside the home was lost in the fire, and he did not have house insurance.
Soon after, people in Emil’s community set up a fundraiser to help him back on his feet.
“He is just a happy-go-lucky kind of guy who is there to help everybody out,” said Lucy Boehler, one of his neighbours. “He is very animal oriented, he had a dog, a cat, and horses… he is a good neighbour, he helps people out.”
Boehler said the house fire started in his kitchen, by the time Emil realized it was too late.
“He was in the living room and the smoke got to him… he tried to get his cat and his dog out but he just burnt his hands badly and didn’t get them out. Just barely got himself out in the clothes on his back and his house slippers.”
Emil has been living with another neighbour for a little over a month.
“He lost everything,” Boehler said. “He is crying a lot, he is beside himself on what to do and he feels like he is putting the neighbours out, which they say he isn’t, but he just wants to get back to as much normal as he can.”
The fundraiser’s goal is to bring in $20,000 for Emil – so far sitting at a little over 10%.
You can find that page here.
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