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Community helps Hamburg family that lost their home to fire

In just two days a fundraising page has raised more than $3,000 for the family.

HAMBURG, N.Y. — "Thank god we weren't asleep, I am very thankful for that," Jennifer Scheelar said.  

Thursday was just a normal weekday evening for Scheelar and her family in Hamburg.

"We were contemplating what we were going to do for dinner and decided to go to John and Mary's, grab dinner, and go see a movie," she said.

The family went to see "Toy Story 4" because it's their 2-year-old daughter Delaney's favorite.

"It was probably about an hour into the movie and my phone was going off, my cousin was calling me, and I just assumed it was nothing. ... He took the call out into the lobby and came running back in, saying that our house was on fire," she said.

A neighbor saw the flames and called 911. When they made it to the house their family dog was nowhere to be found.

"I was shook like please, please, and then finally they ran out with the dog wrapped in a blanket and handed her to me, and she was shaking like there was no tomorrow. I could barely hold her," Mark Berta said.

They are staying with family, and they don't know the extent of the damage to house on Mount Vernon Boulevard.

"Our poor little one is crying that her toys are all gone," she said.

The house has been in Scheelar's family for decades.

"Well, it was my great-grandparents' house, so we grew up there. My dad lived there when he was a kid, and then we all went there. That was our area. It was our little area for seeing our great grandparents, and there's a lot of memories there," she said.

A Facebook fundraiser has raised more than $3,000 for the family to rebuild. 

They say the outpouring of support has been overwhelming.

"The people have just gone above and beyond to try and do anything to help us, and it's amazing" Scheelar said.

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