Family Devastated by Charlestown Thanksgiving Fire Gives Back, Says Thanks

In the true spirit of Thanksgiving, one local family is saying thanks all around. 

A year ago on Thanksgiving, the Richter family's Ravenhill Road home in Charlestown Township caught fire. The fire brought out firefighters from around the Phoenixville area to battle the blaze, and the family lost a member of the family—their dog Sammy—as well as many belongings.

This year, after working to rebuild, the family organized a food drive to benefit (PACS). Michael Richter put together this appeal to around 200 neighbors: 

My name is Michael Richter and I live on Ravenhill Road with my wife and two children. Many of you may know us as the people who had the fire. 

I have come to know that only because I have had a few people ask me when I have walked over at Charlestown Park during the last year. The normal question is, “Aren’t you that family who had the fire this past Thanksgiving?”

Well yes … that was us. 

Around 11:15 a.m. last year on Thanksgiving Day, I received a call that our home was on fire. The only saving grace was that I was in the car with my wife and kids when we got the phone call.

Essentially, we lost our home, the majority of our personal belongings and our beloved dog. Without question, this has been the hardest year of our lives, but we have rebuilt, and we were fortunate to move home this past June. It’s still a work in progress, but I think it’s safe to say we all have a list of projects we would like to accomplish on our homes.

I have always attempted to help people in the past, but it wasn’t until this past Thanksgiving that I was on the receiving end of a stranger’s generosity for the first time in my life. It started with the firefighters from five different companies who left their own families to protect mine. 

We had people we had never spoken to reaching out to us; families welcoming us into their homes; donations of clothing, toys and books for our boys; and, an abundance of generosity from pure strangers. Personally the most important thing that we received were meals delivered to our hotel so we could sit down and eat a hot meal as a family.

In the months following the fire, we tried to continue to eat as a family, a tradition that we had established, in order to give our boys a sense of normalcy.

Hoping to thank the community, the Richters set out to collect food for PACS and garnered many donations, according to Richter, and he hopes the food drive can become an annual event. Richter said the family may work to coordinate a clothing drive in the future as well. 

"This was my first time doing anything like this, and I think I was afraid it could get too big for me to handle," Richter wrote. "I am going to do this every year, and my goal is to go really big next year." 

Most of all, the family wants to thank the community, and Thanksgiving is a great time to do so.

"I would love to utilize your forum to both thank the first responders that were at our home during the fire, friends, family and strangers that have helped through the past year, and to our community that has helped us give back," Richter wrote in an e-mail. 

Following the fire, his wife Chrissie also gave back to the community in a unique way. Through their experience, the family found out that didn't have a photographer. Chrissie Richter now takes photos to help the company out. 

"She has all the gear in the back of the car, and she goes running when ever the alarms go off," Michael Richter wrote. "I would never want to go through it again, but it has changed us for the better, and actually has made us feel like part of the community."