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Sanford detective gets holiday help after fire

A Sanford detective, on the force for nine years, is getting a lot of love from her community. On Thursday, a fire at Colleen Adams' Waterboro home destroyed almost all her possessions and killed two pets.

SANFORD (NEWS CENTER Maine) --

A Sanford detective, on the force for nine years, is getting a lot of love from her community.

On Thursday a fire at Colleen Adams’ Waterboro home destroyed almost all her possessions and killed two pets.

“She’s just a great detective, she's full of energy, she just exudes a really good vibe,” said Sanford Police Sgt. Matthew Jones.

Luckily, neither Adams nor her two children were home at the time.

As soon as the fire was put out, Adams’ co-workers started helping her make a dark moment a bit brighter.

“I was standing with Colleen up at the fire and you know, I just had my arm around her and she told me all the Christmas presents were in the basement,” said Jones.

“That pretty much crushed me so I knew we needed to do something right away.”

Immediately, Adams became one of the people Sanford PD is collecting gifts for this holiday season.

Normally, they take gift wishes from children in need, put them on a tree in the station break room and then try to make those wishes come true.

Once the presents arrive, they’re placed in a big meeting room area.

This year, the department has given Adams a whole section of that room to store clothes, boots, household supplies all donated by people who wanted to help her.

Adams’ friend, dispatcher Megan Welch, created a gofundme page that had already raised over $16,000 by Saturday night.

The police department has received so much clothing and so many toys that they’re telling people they have more than enough.

Instead, their focus is now trying to make Adams and her children feel a sense of normalcy now that she has a found home to rent temporarily.

“If she had a warm meal in front of her and someone was hungry she'd give it to them,” said Welch. “That's the kind of person she is, she's a very generous, very thoughtful person.”

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