It’s all the little things that add up.
The toothpaste, the thermometer to take her children’s temperatures, the comb for knotted hair. Those everyday things that one doesn’t think about: the ironing board to get your shirts ready for work.
“You just don’t think anything like this is going to happen,” Helena Young said.
On the afternoon of July 16, Helena was giving her 10-month-old daughter, Poppy, and her three-year-old son, Alex, tea when she noticed shadows sweeping across the window’s blinds. When she went outside the family’s rental house on Clarke Drive, she noticed smoke coming from the chimney of her neighbour’s house to the south.
Other than removing clothing from a laundry line so it didn’t get smoky, Young didn’t think much of it. But when she went out for a second load, a neighbour came running up her driveway to warn her that the adjacent house was on fire.
“I grabbed the two children and my phone, and got out,” she said. “We didn’t even have shoes on.”
After the firefighters had the blaze under control, Young took her children to a friend’s house to try and get them settled for the night. She assumed the damage would amount to their belongings smelling like smoke. But a few days later — the family was not permitted in the house because of a possible asbestos threat — the Young family realized nothing was left.
“It was completely surreal,” Young said.
The family was planning on moving into their new house this month. They didn’t have tenant’s insurance and with the big moving day so close, waived it.
Hearing of the disaster, the family’s friends set to work. Residents donated diapers for Poppy and toys for Alex.
“It was absolutely incredible the support,” Young said.
Two crowdfunding campaigns were set up online at the Indiegogo site — one for the Willmot family, where the fire initially started, and the other for the Youngs. Nesters Market has cards so shoppers can donate their points to the families. Last week, community members also held a gratitude and fundraiser party at Match Eatery and Public House for the Willmots and Youngs.
Squamish Fire Rescue members are still investigating the cause of the blaze, Chief Russ Inouye wrote in an email to the Squamish Chief. There is still “no news on the cause of the fire.”
The Youngs moved to Squamish two years ago. The family loves the region, but the response to the recent tragedy really makes it feel like home, Young said.
“We just really want to give a massive thank you to everyone. It has been totally overwhelming.”
