New Fundraising Effort Going On This Week For Family Who Lost Home to Fire

It’s a long road for the Daily family after the loss of their house last week, but one local business is trying to help them ring in the New Year.

One Stop Fun on Powers Road in Westford kicked off a week long raffle on Friday night, keeping their doors open for an extra three hours to help support the Beaver Brook Road family now homeless after last week’s tragic events.

Beaver Brook Road resident and One Stop Fun employee Jack Lieber organized the event to help his neighbors while also providing another avenue for area residents to help the  Daily family.

“We have a lot of little kids coming here, and sometimes it can be hard for parents and little kids to get involved in fundraising efforts. My boss was completely behind me setting this up,” he said. “Coming up that day, I was in a complete state of shock.”

For Jason Daily, his wife and his three children, the efforts are appreciated, although work still remains to rebuild his family’s life.

On the day of the fire, he first heard about the news from his wife, who couldn’t stay on the phone long, only saying that their house was on fire.

He drove from his workplace in Lexington back to his home, forcing him to think about it on the car ride home.

Daily said he tried to not think about the tragedy as long as possible, keeping busy throughout the day, but later that evening the reality finally sunk in.

“That night as we checked into the hotel, it really hit us,” he said. “It hit pretty hard and it was unpleasant.”

According to Westford Fire Department inspector Joe DelPapa, the fire began from a malfunctioning washer and dryer unit left unattended. Now according to Daily, the family will have to seek a short term rental unit in the area as his insurance company evaluates how much it will take to rebuild the home, which they moved into in 2012.

After a price for rebuilding is set, he then expects it will take nine to twelve months to fully rebuild his family’s home.

Although it is not clear if it will make financial sense to move back in, Daily is committed to return if possible, hoping to utilize the family’s three vehicles, all of which survived the fire.

“Even if we have to live a little farther away in the interim, we’ll make it work,” he said.

For DelPapa, who has been in the department since 1999, the outpouring of aid from the community is not comparable to anything else he’s seen.

“We did do a lot of charity work to get clothes for victims of the Western Massachusetts tornadoes, but that was nothing like this,” he said.