06-05-2025
‘We feel incredibly grateful': Community rallies around Chesapeake family that lost home in fire
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — A Chesapeake family is thanking the community after getting support following a house fire last month.
On Saturday, April 12, dispatchers received reports of a house on fire off of Country Mill Run Road at approximately 12:10 p.m.
When crews arrived, they reported heavy fire showing. The Virginia Beach Fire Department, Moyock Fire Department and Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Fire & Emergency Services also responded to help with water supply and fire extinguishment.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control around 1:40 p.m.
'We got a call that our house was on fire,' resident Heidi Walblay said. 'When we got here, the house was almost halfway gone, still fully engulfed in flames.'
Walblay, her husband Mark Walblay and their two boys lost the place they had called their home for eight years.
'We had three different investigators come out, and they know where it started, but they're not sure why it started,' Walblay said.
Walblay said they also lost over two dozen of their animals in the blaze.
'We lost our three dogs, we had two Frenchie's, Trooper and Nala and my best friend, Spot,' Heidi Walblay said. 'We also lost 20 baby chickens and our two snakes, a leopard gecko, red footed tortoise and a pig during all this. The animals, I think, is the hardest part to get over.'
Her family is now staying in a rental home, and it could take over a year to rebuild their family home.
Walblay is a former nurse, and her husband Mark is a former Virginia Beach Police officer.
The couple is used to giving back, but now it's the community's turn — and they haven't let them down. Even though the fire only happened three weeks ago, the community has raised more than $60,000 so far to help them get back on their feet.
'Thank you for giving me, giving me and my kids and my husband, the shoes off your feet, literally, and the clothes off your back, the money that you've worked so hard for just so that we can get back,' Walblay said. 'We feel incredibly grateful, and I'll never be able to say thank you [enough for] what it means to us,'
Walblay is also a small business owner and says that other fellow small businesses stepped up to help her family in their time of need.
She encourages the community to support those businesses just like they have supported her family.
'If we could somehow thank the people that have shown up for us by pouring back into what they offer, I will be grateful for that,' Walblay said.
Walblay added that she is humbled and grateful for how the community has stepped up to help her and her family.
'I just want to say thank you. That's the whole point of this is to say thank you, and thank you will never, ever, ever be enough,' Walblay said. 'I hope that this kind of inspires, like a trigger-type thing in the community, where we all show up for each other and help each other because it's truly needed.'
She added that she has been inspired by this situation to find a new way to continue to help others who are going through a similar situation to hers.
'After all this is over [and] we're back on our feet, I plan to start a foundation to help the people that don't have the help that we've had, because I cannot imagine navigating something like this without the support,' Walblay said.
The family is still in need of clothing and financial support, so there will be a fundraiser for them Friday, May 16 at New Realm Brewery in Virginia Beach.
To find the families GoFundMe, and the businesses that supported the family, click on Wallaby's Linktree here.
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