WALKER, Mich. — A home in Walker burned down early Wednesday morning, and neighbors sent us video they took, showing how intense the fire was.
Jake and Mandy Robbins say it was their first home together, after a long battle to purchase a house in West Michigan, given the difficult buyers' market. They'd put in more than a dozen offers on homes before finally succeeding in purchasing their new house on Ferndale Avenue in Walker.
Many of the couple's most valuable items were in the back sun room, which was scorched. Luckily, a lot of stuff was in the garage, which the fire did not damage.
Jake and Mandy planned to move their stuff in Wednesday. The floors had just been refinished, and they were ready to move in furniture. But now, all that has changed.
However, the Robbins family noticed one ray of hope: the robin's nest in the gutter also survived the fire.
Jake and Mandy had been staying in an apartment while the floors were redone, so their pet bird wouldn't have to breathe in fumes. In their words, if it "wasn't for Nigel," they would have been staying in the home and could have been hurt in the fire.
Thankfully, no one was inside the home when it burned. The loss of the home, however, is felt by even the neighbors next door.
The home is considered a loss after burning down just before 3 a.m. Wednesday. Neighbors say their hearts break for the new couple who was about to move in.
“We were excited for them to move in,” neighbor Shirward Punches said.
Punches lives next door with his wife and four children. The family has called Ferndale Avenue "home" for around eight years.
Their excitement to welcome the new neighbors was quickly taken over by fear when the house next door went up in flames.
“It was really scary. My wife, I woke her up to it. She doesn’t like fire at all. So, we literally had to evacuate, grab all the kids. She actually grabbed our go bag, put our passports in the bag. Put all the important information in her bag, because we didn’t know if it was going to catch our house on fire,” Punches recalled.
The fire damaged one entire side of his home, but luckily, it did not catch on fire.
Punches says his heart goes out to the next door neighbors, who had only just started moving into the home less than a few weeks ago.
“I saw them working every day, preparing for them to move, and we knew they didn’t move in yet. To see something like that, was very shocking,” Punches said.
“I was like aw man, this is a really good neighbor. I’m looking forward to hanging out with him and having him move in. To see this happening to him and his wife, it’s just heartbreaking. This is something you’re supposed to be excited for."
Right now, it's not clear how the fire started.
FOX 17 was alerted to a verified GoFundMe page started on the couple's behalf.
"We so badly wish we could go back in time and prevent this from happening to them, and want to do anything we possibly can to help," it reads as the organizer described what was lost.
You can click here to support them here.
