Community comes together to provide assistance to survivors of home fire

A Prince Rupert family is thanking a number of community groups and individuals for their assistance after a recent fire that destroyed their trailer in mid January.

A wide cross section of the city has provided cash, clothing, household goods and personal labour to help the family get their lives back together, after a trailer fire destroyed all that owned.

The Daily News featured a front page story on Monday, with details of the fundraising efforts and the gratitude that Kim Stewart and her family have for all those that have helped them out in their time of need.

FAMILY THAT LOST SO MUCH IN FIRE LEFT FULL OF THANKS
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Monday, February 18, 2008
Pages one and three

It's been an emotional month of hardship for Kim Stewart and her family since their trailer burned to the ground, but in the wake of their tragedy they have so much to be thankful for.

"My biggest concern was the cost of the dumping fees for what was left of our trailer, because I didn't have any home insurance so that was my big dilemma," said Stewart. "But I'd really like to thank the office of Gary Coons and the City of Prince Rupert for having my dumping fees waived. It's such a relief for me because we really had no idea what we were going to do. "

The total cost to demolish the trailer and have it dumped would have been close to $4,000, but with the help and generosity of Joe Ciotoli at Prince Rupert Disposal who gave them a great deal for a dumpster, and Dan Basso at Northland Universal, who donated his time and equipment to knock the trailer down, that cost was cut in half. Then on Friday, Stewart found out that the dumping fees would also be waived, which was wonderful news for the family that is trying to get back on their feet after the fire.

And the outflow of generosity that Kim, her boyfriend, Stacey Reece, and their daughters, Faith and Claire, have received doesn’t end there. The Women of the Moose donated $1,000 in gift certificates for Zellers and Extra Foods, and the owners of Digital Printing gave them a new Queen sized bed from City Furniture. Stewart had set up a trust fund account to receive monetary donations, to which the women’s auxiliary and Prince Rupert Regional Hospital staff were gracious enough o make contributions.

The local Anglican, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches also put together care packages for the family, and Reece’s fellow sea urchin crew took up cash donations to help out with their first month’s rent.

“It’s all so much, and I’ve already personally given them all thank-you cards, but I really want to mention them all because I’m just so grateful,” said Stewart. “It’s only been one month, but looking at the place we’re living now and everything we’ve been given from the community, you would never know we had gone through a tragedy.”

After an oil heater malfunctioned and turned their home into a blazing inferno on the afternoon of Thurs. Jan. 17, Stewart and her family have been coming to terns with the loss of not only their home, but eight pets that didn’t make it out. The ordeal was hardest on two-year old Faith, and even though she’s beginning to accept their new residence as home, she still asks about the dogs that are no longer with them.

“It just breaks my heart of course, because I loved them all so much too,” said Stewart.

“I tried so hard to go back in to the trailer and rescue them, because you keep thinking that maybe there’s something you can still do.

“Luckily, there were three men, Charlie, Matthew and Eric, who were there to stop me. I don’t know their last names, but I thank God they didn’t let me go backing.”

Stewart says they were heroic in their efforts to kick down the dead bolted front door in an effort to save the pets, something she will never forget.

She’s also thankful that they prompted her to find her keys and move her van, which was parked close enough to the blazing trailer that it would have surely been ruined had it sat there any longer.

“It just happens that the van wasn’t insured during that week too, so it’s just so ironic,” she said.
“You have to think that all these things happen for a reason, and I’m really just grateful that my kids are alive and we’re all OK. Because if it would have happened during the night, we would have all been gone.