Kirstin Shaw's mood has varied from shock to "let's get it fixed" mode since her family's home was damaged by fire Friday.
A three-alarm fire broke out at 1036 Seventh Ave., which is across the street from Lord Kelvin Elementary School. A dog, a cat and a hamster survived the fire, but the family's longtime cat, Kato, perished.
Shaw has received numerous offers of assistance from community members since the fire. While many people have expressed a desire to help the family, Shaw said she'll have a better sense of her family's needs once they know where they'll be living and they know what items survived the fire.
"It is hard to receive this kind of charity at this time," she said. "We are eternally grateful and looking forward to a day when we can help someone else."
A restoration crew will remove items from the house, at which time the family will be able to determine what can be saved and what needs to be replaced.
"It is really overwhelming," Shaw said. "People are rallying together. It shows a real spirit of community."
No one was home when the fire broke out on the morning of Friday, Dec. 16. Shaw lives in the house with her son and her mother, who owns the house.
"The whole basement area looks like it has been heated up, scorched pretty good," said fire inspector Brent Joel. "Obviously it had perked away for some time."
Joel said the fire appears to have started in the dryer vent in the basement.
Joel said the fire damage was mainly confined to the basement. Although there was no structural damage to the main floor, there was some blistering of paint near the kitchen and hallway.
Fire crews also had to cut into some walls to ensure the fire wasn't spreading from the basement.
"Smoke penetrated everything," said assistant fire chief Reid Millman about the three-storey home. "We were able to contain most of the damage to the basement area."
Joel said the house suffered $75,000 to $100,000 (or more) worth of damage. The owner had house insurance.
Neighbour Ralph Norman was coming home from grocery shopping when he heard fire trucks racing to the scene. "There was smoke coming out of the chimney, and it looked pretty big."
Joel said City of New Westminster building inspectors inspected the home, which has a blend of old and new wiring. "It is going to trigger a bunch of different permitting processes to get it rebuilt."
Joel said firefighters did a good job of extinguishing the fire, and preventing it from spreading upstairs and to neighbouring homes. He noted that there were a lot of papers in the kitchen, which would have ignited if firefighters hadn't got the fire under control as fast as they did.
Arriving at the scene, Millman immediately upped the fire to a third alarm.
"That gets you a couple more engines and more crew," Joel explained. "He was concerned about protecting the houses next door."
Neighbour Della Wittig said Gypsy, a three-legged dog, had been trapped inside the house for some time but made it out safely.
"She kept running back into the house," she said. "She was so freaked out."
Wittig commended Lord Kelvin Elementary School principal Dal Rama for her concern about the fire and Shaw's son, a Grade 5 student at the school. She ensured he knew about the fire before he went outside for lunch break so he wouldn't be shocked to learn there had been a fire at his house.
Glen Bailey, president of the New Westminster Firefighters' Charitable Society, said firefighter Randy Keen and Capt. Ivan Tuura talked to Shaw about assistance that may be available through the charitable society.
"They got the ball rolling," Bailey said. "We are going to help them out with replacement of some Christmas presents. They will be going and buying the Christmas presents. We will be reimbursing them."
Shaw said she had been storing her son's Christmas presents in the basement. In addition, his favourite clothes were in the dryer and were destroyed by the fire.
Neighbours and community members want to do what they can to help the family through the ordeal.
"It's a very close neighbourhood," Wittig said. "We all know each other quite well. It is horrible. It's everyone's biggest fear."
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