House fire with no insurance - Winnipeg

On November 29th just after 9pm my neighbour Maria Hrabarchuk who lives on College Ave. In Winnipeg, noticed smoke coming from her basement. She and the one child who was at home managed to escape with literally the clothes on their backs. She believes the fire may have started in/around her furnace.

Maria is a single mom with two high school aged boys (16 + 17) still at home. Because of job losses earlier this year due to the pandemic, Maria faced a choice of paying the mortgage and putting food on the table or continuing to pay for house insurance. No one ever thinks their house is actually going to catch fire. 

A big thank you to the Winnipeg Fire Department members who were able to get a cat, a rabbit and two lizards out of the house. Two other cats are believed to have gotten out but have not yet been caught.

At this point it’s impossible to say if anything in the house is salvageable, and she of course has no means to fix it. She has been a good neighbour here in the St. John’s neighbourhood (part of the North End) for over 10 years and has worked hard to provide for her family. I think many of realized through this pandemic that we are all perhaps one paycheque away from possible disaster. This is her disaster. 

I have started this GoFundMe with Maria’s knowledge and blessing and once she has time to catch her breath I will of course figure out how to transfer this over to her properly. 

I’ve set a very modest goal to start, I can’t even begin to imagine the costs she has ahead of her, not the least of which will be continuing to pay the mortgage for a house her and her family can’t stay in but also purchasing everything you might need to start over and then the cost of repairs.

2020 has been a heck of a year for everyone, and if you are lucky enough to find yourself in a financial situation where you can help out that would be amazing.