My cat and I survived the Helix apartment fire, but we lost everything else
Hi everyone, first-time poster. I’m sharing this to spread the word after losing all my belongings in the Helix Apartments fire in St. Louis Park, Minnesota one month ago on July 17th, 2026. Everything except for my beautiful boy!! 🐈⬛
I wasn’t home when the fire broke out, and the time I learned what was happening and made it back, I wasn’t able to enter the building. My cat, Macaroni, was still trapped inside; and for almost 26 hours, we had no idea whether he was alive or not in there.
Thankfully, a few mitigation workers went above and beyond to rescue him. After being evaluated by a veterinarian, he was recovering and resting with me again. Truly those regular people who didn’t need to risk their lives but heard my cries that day are the superheroes in my story and will always be.
Having him back safely was an enormous relief in what has otherwise been an incredibly difficult weekend, and truly was my saving grace in carrying me through this emotionally. This apartment fire left more than 90 units uninhabitable, mine included, and our leases were immediately terminated.
I was finally allowed to enter my unit for the first time since the fire on August 5th, where I was able to recover next to nothing. Between the extensive water/mold damage and looters affecting nearly everything inside, my apartment and belongings were ultimately considered a total loss.
So, at 26 years old, my cat and I are starting over from scratch.
I’ve since been fortunate to find a new apartment, which has finally given us some sense of stability amidst the chaos. But having an empty apartment is very different from rebuilding a home, and that process won’t be easy or fast.
I’m slowly trying to replace things lost that most of us don’t think twice about until they’re suddenly gone. Things like furniture, clothing, kitchen supplies, random household items, toiletries (MAKEUP in my case), electronics, and really everything else is stuff accumulated over YEARS if not decades of living independently.
My family originally started this GoFundMe for me (I couldn’t be more thankful for them) and I’m trying to be better with sharing it, because replacing an entire household at once is an enormous financial burden, especially with insurance handling 50+ claims from this fire and being a slow process. I can’t adequately express how grateful our family is for the support received so far, and if you’ve read this far, your support alone means the world.
I’m sharing it in this group in hopes of reaching people outside of our immediate circle who may be willing to help me get a little closer to rebuilding what was lost (below) -
GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-alaina-macaroni-rebuild-after-helix-apartments-fire
Any amount genuinely helps. And if donating isn’t possible, even sharing the fundraiser or helping it reach someone else would mean a great deal to us.
♥️ Thank you for taking the time to read my and Macaroni’s story — for those of you who want to hear more about his rescue, I made a TikTok about my experience! https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTDkAfXuE/