Jackson County Family Loses Everything in Fire Friday

MLive.com reports that 27 year old Mark VanHouten II was unloading his kids from his vehicle outside his home on Parnall Road in Blackman Township Friday night when he heard a crash and saw flames. He opened the door and called for his dog, to no avail.

The Van Houten family, which includes his wife Maranda and their five kids, lost everything they owned, including their dog, two cats and a bunny. And they didn't have insurance.

Maranda VanHouten's sister Brandi Warner-Tipton has started a Go Fund Me page to help the family.

I want to start by saying that usually our family can group together to fix major problems one of us has but this is TOO BIG even for us. Friday 11/3/17 started out as a typical work day and ended as one of the worst tragedies our family has ever experienced. I received a phone call about 8:19pm from my brother-in-law. He was trying to get in touch with my sister. She was working with me catering the United Way Power Of The Purse event at the Commonwealth Commerce Center in Jackson Michigan. He was calling because our childhood home that they've been raising their 5 children in for the past 6 years was in flames!!!

They need everything from clothes to personal care items - anything you might use in the course of a day for two adults and five kids. Cash would help a lot, too. If you want to help out a family from our community, click here for more details.