BOZEMAN — On November 21, a mobile home caught fire in King Arthur Park leaving three brothers without a home. Now, they’re still trying to pick up the pieces.
“Honestly, I wanted to cry when I first saw the damage", says Lance Schmidt one of the residents. “My heart was shattered. “This is our home, our only home.”
Schmidt and his brothers have lived in their home in King Arthur Park for 10 years.
“Coming from growing up homeless and low income, this is the first thing I’ve ever had to my name and it’s gone now,” says Schmidt.
The inside of the home was damaged significantly by the fire that started towards the back end it. The estimated cost to repair the damage was about $50,000. This is money that the brothers do not have. They’ve been staying in a hotel ever since the incident.
“Luckily our work is helping us and paying for the room as long as we need,” says Schmidt.
However, the brothers still need some help as their home was not insured.
“It would’ve run us about 1,000 a month and being paycheck to paycheck, that wasn’t in our budget,” says Schmidt.
Nick Homec is a Farmers Insurance agent and says this is because mobile homes are considered “high risk”.
“They tend to have more claims turned in on them than your typical stick-build home,” says Homec. “Even though we can insure 90% of our clients, whether it’s affordable is still a barrier for a lot of people,” says Schmidt.
The brothers have a GoFundMe page set up and hope to raise enough money to buy a new home.
“Even If you can’t donate, just send us some prayers and share with your friends and family,” says Schmidt.
