Help the Lawson family have a healthy home

We are asking for assistance with covering the costs of temporary housing, permanent housing, and loss of damaged possessions. 

If anyone is aware of a healthy 2-3bedroom home with nearby nature space for under 2000$ a month on Vancouver Island it would be a huge help.

Who we are:

We are a family of 5 living in Fanny Bay BC.  Three members of the family are children: Oaklyn 5, Raewyn 3, Eden 1. The rural setting and abundant nature has been great during the pandemic for our children's exploration and play.  My wife has been in the WCB vocational program after sustaining a life changing injury (CRPS in right arm) 2 years ago. She had just started a new job at a car dealership in Courtenay.  I am the stay at home dad and take care of our children and house. Our life is usually filled with hikes, foraging, gardening and the nitty gritty of raising kids during a pandemic. 

What Happened:

Saturday January 16th 2021,

Our landlord came by to attempt a DIY fireplace servicing. We had booked a professional service for January 25th that he was aware of. When he entered he mentioned he knew how to do the job and had done it before. 

He proceeded to open the fireplace, don a mask and plug in his shopvac. There was a bit of dust in the air so I took my son Eden into the kitchen. A few moments later I notice the kitchen is filling with a huge dust cloud. I bolt with my boy to the back room and close the curtain to the kids room where Oaklyn and Raewyn are playing. The fire-alarm starts going off because of the density of particulate. The landlord finally shuts off the shopvac and says "ill be back soon with some fire bricks", he leaves...

As the dust settles i realize that this is a COMPLETE CATASTROPHE. Our everything is coated in a grey/black fine soot and creosote particulate....

We decide to evacuate immediately.

The landlord made an effort to remove the soot from the house by hiring some local cleaners who answered the call on facebook. However because the ash is so fine, cleaning only stirs it back into the air only to settle again.

My wife contacts Belfor restoration for a consultation on how to restore a space after a contamination of fine creosote dust. This is when we realized the magnitude of the mistake. They explain how difficult removing soot is, and explain a lengthy process involving; air scrubbers, negative pressure, professional cleaning of everything off site, house cleaning, and salvage of possessions.  Our landlord has expressed he isn't capable of the large costs associated with this kind of process.  

So we decide to try and work on remediating the space with the landlord. We hired someone to paint the ceilings with special paint, and someone to get rid of a few major pieces of furniture. The cleaners were already booked along with the fireplace repair company. 

January 25th 2021,

The cleaners come to work on the space and are optimistic. The fireplace repair guy tells us it was a blocked chimney causing the original issue, he also mentions how toxic contamination like this is and how hard remediation can be. As we get into an new air bnb we receive a message from the cleaners that they have been sent home after being yelled at by our landlord and that they were unable to finish the clean.

My wife loses her job for not being able to make her shifts. She will continue the WCB vocational placement program.

January 26th 2021,

The space is still very contaminated with black particulate all throughout the house.

It seems we have no choice now but to seek alternative housing.

So here we are, in legally a strong position for a Residential tenancy dispute. However this whole process is a string of large out of pocket expenses before we ever get reimbursed or back into a properly remediated space.

Thank you for reading and caring!

Cedar (Bryan) Lawson, and Family.