Police help family rebuild after house fire
WHEN Darryl Brown and his family lost everything in a house fire, he never imagined the outpouring of support that would follow.
The Brown family home on McNulty St in Miles burnt down in the early hours of Saturday.
The family had paid off their mortgage but didn’t have insurance. That’s when the Miles police stepped in.
Chinchilla police liaison officer Robyn Jennings said she got a call from a Miles police constable on Sunday morning asking whether any organisations in Chinchilla could help the Browns rebuild their lives.
Ms Jennings immediately got a list of emergency items from Mr Brown and started contacting Chinchilla businesses and groups.
She was overwhelmed by their eagerness to help.
ADRA donated clothes, linen, cutlery, plates and sheets for the family, while Target donated a toaster and six new pillows.
A kettle was donated by Keatings Hardware, an electric frying pan by Betta Electrical and $50 of toiletries by Drakes Chinchilla.
Gleeson Quality Meats donated a meat pack and the Chinchilla Farmers Markets a box of fruit and vegetables.
By Tuesday morning the goods had been delivered to the Brown family.
Mr Brown said they were deeply thankful and “humbled enormously”.
For Ms Jennings, it was all about helping the community.
“It’s about borderless policing. That’s how we look at it - that we help each other, especially in country areas.
“If that happened here to someone, I would hope that our community would rally around that person too.”