'We lost everything we owned': Neighbors come together on Nextdoor to help Tampa couple after house fire

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — It was a devastating beginning to 2024. Cheryl Ridgeway’s home is covered in soot and ash after it caught fire shortly before the clock struck midnight. That’s when her husband, Dennis ran inside. “He ran in,” Cheryl recalled. “He ran back out and he started screaming, ‘I can’t save the animals, I can’t save the animals.'” Their pets didn’t make it out alive and Dennis has been in the hospital ever since.

“He was in a medically infused coma,” she explained. “He inhaled a lot of soot and smoke, and they had to I guess scrape his insides.” After calling 911, Dennis and Cheryl just sat and watched their home engulfed in flames. Cheryl told 8 On Your Side, the few minutes that first responders took to arrive felt like hours.

“It was hopelessness,” she said. “Just hopelessness.” “We lost everything we owned,” she added. “We didn’t have insurance on the house, we couldn’t afford it at the time, and we had just put a new roof on the house.” “Everything [was] in the works of hopefully being able to do that,” she continued.

“What do you do, how do you stop it?” “A water hose?” Cheryl said. “A water hose isn’t going to stop it.” But hope isn’t lost just yet, as Tampa community members rally together to help one of their own. Wayne Tomlinson is spearheading the effort by posting on the NextDoor app. “Most of the time people just go onto NextDoor to complain about something or to look for lost pets or something like that and when an opportunity like this arises, it really surprises a lot of people that communities everywhere will gather around a neighbor in need and respond like this,” Tomlinson said.

They now have an RV, clothes and medication on the way. Cheryl told 8 On Your Side, she’s just taking it day by day, grateful to have such a supportive community behind her. “I keep trying to tell myself everyday that we’re alive,” she said. “We made it.” “Things can only get better from here,” Cheryl continued.

“You take it minute by minute, hour by hour.” “That’s the only way to get through it,” she concluded. You can donate to her GoFundMe here..