DOWAGIAC — Wednesday morning, Dowagiac resident Lisa Adair wiped tears from her eyes as she watched her family’s belongings, now charred and covered in black soot, were moved into a dumpster.

“We lost everything,” she said, taking a moment to compose herself. She was wearing the same clothing she was wearing three days ago. “What the fire didn’t get was ruined by smoke and water. So, we really did lose everything, all our clothes, appliances, furniture, everything.”

The home Adair, 42, and her two children live in on Bradley Street in Dowagiac was the site of a structure fire Monday. Authorities responded to the fully-involved house fire around 9:10 p.m. Labor Day, according to Deputy Fire Chief, Robert Smith, of the Dowagiac Fire Department. While a definitive cause of the fire has yet to be determined, Smith said it is possible the fire may have been started by a lightning strike. The family was not present at the time of the fire, and there were no injuries.

“We were coming home from visiting family for the holiday, and we turned the corner and saw the smoke,” Adair recalled from Monday evening. “I thought, ‘Oh, no. Someone’s house is on fire.’ But then I saw the firefighters at our house, on the back porch. It was very shocking. We just had to sit here, in the middle of the street, and watch everything burn. There was nothing we could help with.”

Now, in the aftermath of the fire, Adair is reaching out to the Dowagiac community for help.

The Adair family moved to Dowagiac less than a month ago from Evart, Michigan. Adair said the move was supposed to be exciting and a way to start over, as she had taken a job with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, her first job since she had her first child almost 20 years ago.

The family had not even finished unpacking all their boxes into the home before the fire, Adair said.

“We had just bought the house and started over,” she said. “Now, we have to start over again with even less than we had before. I don’t even know where to start.”

Family of Adair’s have set up a GoFundMe page in her honor to help with the costs of cleaning and repairs to the home. The family did not have insurance, so they must pay for all damages themselves. At the time of press, the GoFundMe had raised $550.

People can send physical items that Adair’s teenaged children need, such as underwear and socks, to her brother, Dean Orvis’, home, 30965 M-62 W., Dowagiac.

Though she is new to the community and said she knows donations are a lot to ask for, Adair is hoping for Dowagiac to embrace and help her and her family through this time.

“I’m not the type of person to ask for stuff. I hate asking for help,” she said. “But any help financially would be a tremendous blessing.”

Going forward, Adair said she is still figuring out her next steps and is determining the cost of repairing and rebuilding her home.

“We are hoping to rebuild and have this be our home and community,” she said. “I don’t even know how to go about doing that. … I’m still figuring all this out.”

To donate to the Adair family GoFundMe page, visit gofundme.com/lisa-orvis-adair-family-house-fire.