Fire Damage Fund

At 3:00 am on the night of April 3rd my mom heard a commotion upstairs from her basement suite, soon after to hear the landlord shouting FIRE. Her cat had already run into hiding, she quickly grabbed her wallet and a housecoat and ran outside. A lit candle upstairs had spread fire through part of the upper floor of the house. She waited outside in her car in her pyjamas while the fire department came and extinguished the fire. Thankfully no one was hurt, but there is extensive damage to the house and smoke and water damage to my mom's basement suite.

A social worker provided my mom with a hotel voucher good for three nights and $150 gift card at walmart so she could buy a change of clothing -still stuck in her pyjamas and housecoat. Her bedroom was directly beneath where the fire started, her clothes, bed and furniture are damaged.

In search of affordable housing she took what she could get -which turned out to be an illegal suite. She does not have insurance coverage.

She now needs to find temporary housing, replace her damaged clothing, replace damaged furniture and belongings as well as move her things into storage and then a new apartment and we all know the expenses that come with moving. She will also be taking time off work to deal with all of this.

Counting my lucky stars that my mom -and everyone else in the house- got out safely and uninjured, if a bit traumatized. It's just a sad reality that not everyone can afford house insurance or a certified legal place to live.

I'll be driving down to the area to help her with clean-up and moving. If you are in the Chilliwack area and would like to help with moving please get in touch with me. Anything helps.