Fundraiser for Detroit Man Who Lost Home in Fire Surpasses $300K

Roderick Reynolds, a 32-year-old father of five, had been working around the clock on the home. It was lost in a fire alongside his work truck and family dog.

A Detroit man who was estimated to be "a week or two" away from finishing up work on a new home for his family has now lost the residence following a devastating fire.

Roderick Reynolds, a 32-year-old father of five who recently made his way back to Detroit after work in Troy started slowing down amid COVID-19 concerns, explained to a regional Fox outlet that he was unable to pay his lease in Troy once work slowed down, so he came to Detroit to begin fixing up the home on Dickerson Street he initially bought roughly a year ago.

"This for them," Reynolds said in an interview about the fire, which occurred Thursday and is now under investigation by the Detroit Fire Department. "I don't care about nothing. I just want my kids to be straight. That's it … I've got to get food on the table. I've got kids. And I'm a man, so I've got to make sure I can take care of them."

Reynolds, who did not have insurance, estimates he had put around $50,000 into the home. And over the past three months, he had worked around the clock to ready it for his family. In addition to the home being destroyed, Reynolds also lost his work truck and the family dog.

Thankfully, a GoFundMe has been started in an effort to help Reynolds and his family through this difficult time. At the time of this writing, the total raised funds for the campaign was nearing $380,000 against an initial goal of $100,000.

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