From MichaelD Himself
"Hello,

    For those of you how don't know me let me share a bit of info. I am Michael D. Wilbanks , I have been a member of Team HOT for the last year. Yesterday morning at around 8:45 am my familys applicance store ( Wilbanks A/c and Appliance ) caught on fire and burned to the ground. As the awning collapsed from the roof a firefighter (Phillip Townsend) was caught and trapped for nearly 30 minutes while everyone tried to rescue him. After they pulled him from he burning debris. He was rushed to the hospital and died soon after.  He was only 31 years old , and had only been apart of the Denison Fire Department for about a year. In his death he leaves behind a wife , and 3 young children.

 The tragedy however doesn't end there. My family does not have insurance to cover anything , they always lived day by day with the money they made. Paying bills , buying food , and gas needed to keep a working business going. Any kind of money they ever made was put back into the store to keep it running.The family owned and runned business has been around for 12 + years. They always put their hearts into that store, working 6 days a week. Doing all the repairs , sells , and deliverys by themselves. They have lost everything in the fire , every appliance was nearly melted to the ground. My father lost all his tools , recovery machines , freon and gauges. The entire inventory of parts used for repairs was burnt to a crisp. They are left with a store in shambles , nothing is salvageable. Now for someone my age to have to start all over from scratch it wouldn't be such a big deal. But my father is nearly pushing 50, and my mother the same. Luckily the realator was kind enough to offer a building he has for us to start all over in. Its been vacant for about 4 years , it has a ton of garbage in it and the roof leaks .Its probaly going to be some time before they can get any kind of steady income to support themselves. There have already been numerous people who have offered to come help out with the building and such that needs to be down. Some even offered old toolsets , a little here and a little there makes a differnce.


Ps: Here are a few news links with pictures and videos included

www.Kxii.com
www.Kten.com

 If anyone has another set of forums they browse and don't mind reposting this info there , it would greatly be appreciated."