Couple expecting twins loses everything in fire

For Michael and Punkie Matherne, life the last several months has been tough.

"It’s just try each day, each minute just to get through," said Punkie Matherne.

She lost her mom in December.

Michael, who works as a special education assistant in Minneapolis Public Schools, is now out of school.

"It’s absolutely devastating," he said.

On Sunday, having been home all day, the couple decided to go for a drive to get out of the house. They came home to flames.

"It was pretty clear right away that it was going be a total loss of everything, all of the sentimental things are gone," Michael said.

Four months pregnant, the couple is expecting twins in August and had already started gathering gifts from friends and family.

"Most of the things were gift cards we had saved up and accumulated a lot of those, which I kept calling the diaper gift cards," said Punkie.

Crews are now removing debris and working to tear the building down.

But as it comes down, support for this young family is growing as school co-workers and friends have set up two GoFundMe accounts to help out. You can see those here and here.

"It is so incredibly uplifting and motivating to know all those people are around us and supporting us," Michael said. 

Fire investigators are trying to determine how the fire started.