Three Petworth residents are raising funds to replace their belongings and find a new place to live after a July 4 fire left them without a home.

Their fourth roommate had been throwing an Independence Day party that included illegal fireworks, according to Lauren Taughinbaugh and Carissa Gambo. They and another roommate, Rashieda Blake, weren’t home when one of the aerial fireworks apparently lit the house on fire just before 1 a.m., according to D.C. Fire and EMS.

Taughinbaugh had been attending another July 4 party that night, and returned home at around 12:40 a.m., she tells DCist. The first thing she noticed when she walked into her Petworth home was the smell of burning wood, but she figured it was coming from the fire pit outside, where people attending her roommate’s party were still gathered, she says.

But less than a minute after she had collapsed exhausted on her bed upstairs, Taughinbaugh says she heard one of the fire alarms go off. She jumped out of bed and went into the second floor hallway, where she realized with sudden horror that plumes of dark smoke were billowing around the beeping alarm, she says. In her panic, she couldn’t seem to figure out where exactly the fire was.

“I went out on the porch just to see where the fire was coming from. Because I knew the house was on fire and I just couldn’t see where,” she says. “And I was just screaming, our house is on fire, there’s a fire. And I looked up at our house, and Carissa’s bathroom was just glowing.”

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Taughinbaugh’s roommate, Carissa Gambo, was at work at the Brixton, where she’s the assistant general manager. Taughinbaugh saw clouds of black smoke smothering Gambo’s second-floor room. She ran back to her room to find her cat, grabbed her cellphone, and immediately called 911.

“Within five minutes, the fire department was there. But by then, there were flames,” Taughinbaugh says.

No one was injured in the fire, though two small dogs belonging Blake were rescued unconscious from the smoke-filled home.

The home was severely damaged and rendered completely unlivable that night, according to Taughinbaugh and Gambo, and the D.C. Fire Department.

When crews arrived, the fire was roaring on the second floor, extending to the walls of the home and the attic, according D.C. Fire and EMS spokesperson Vito Maggiolo. He tells DCist that fire investigators determined the blaze was caused by illegal fireworks.

Taughinbaugh and Gambo say their fourth roommate had been involved in setting off the fireworks, calling him “reckless and careless” in a letter to Popville.

It’s not clear exactly who set off the fire-causing firework. The Metropolitan Police Department tells DCist that arson investigators are looking into the fire, but no one has been arrested.

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Gambo and Taughinbaugh are living in Maryland with Gambo’s parents while they try to figure out where to go, they tell DCist. Blake is living with a friend nearby. The three of them lost nearly everything they owned—Taughinbaugh salvaged just a couple of pairs of shoes and shirts, while Gambo was able to save some crystal necklaces, a purse, and a dream catcher that had been hanging in her room.

When Gambo arrived home, firefighters were already trying to combat the flames, pumping a stream of water into her room. “It looked like a rainstorm happening in my room, and I just realized, all my shit is gone,” she says, her voice shaky. “Everything is gone.”

Taughinbaugh, Gambo, and Blake have launched a GoFundMe for $15,000 to help them replace their things and find a new place to live together (the fourth roommate will not benefit from the fundraiser, according to Gambo).  All three of them work in the service industry in D.C., and it’s difficult for them to live outside of the city, Gambo says. And Blake’s dogs needed veterinary care that has already cost thousands of dollars.

The three women have been struggling to find an affordable place in the city that will allow them to keep all three of their pets, Gambo says. But despite the difficulties, she says she has been touched by all the friends, many of them also working in the D.C. service industry, who have reached out, donated money, and otherwise been there for them throughout the ordeal. People have already donated more than $5,000.

“The support has been very overwhelming,” she says.