No one ever expects cooking dinner to lead to all one's possessions being ruined and being forced from home for a year, but that is what is facing a Squamish family, just days before Christmas.
Aggie Andrew, 61, was making frybread on the stove on Sunday evening when, before she knew it, fire was spreading through the kitchen, her daughter Naomi Cayou told The Chief.
Smoke from the fire quickly spread through Andrew's two-storey home in the 4,000 block of Government Road.
"She said it went it up so fast, it was almost instant," Cayou said. "She couldn't dial 911 from her cell phone because she couldn't get the keypad up. So, she ran next door and said, 'Call 911. My house is on fire!'"
Cayou, who drives a taxi, said she had been visiting at her mom's house earlier in the afternoon.
"Then I left and... [then] the fire truck was going by and trying to cross the intersection at the light and something made me turn that way... and follow the fire truck," she said.
Cayou turned in by the Tim Hortons near her mom's home and saw the smoke.
"Oh, my God, that is my mom's house," she recalled thinking.
Andrew lives in the home with her husband Shlomish. They are staying in a Squamish hotel for now. Social services have helped them out with shelter and necessities for the first few days.
The important thing is that the family survived uninjured and that the house still stands, but Andrew had recently finished her Christmas shopping and everything is now lost, including sacred items, such as her native carvings.
"The whole upstairs is destroyed," said Cayou. Firefighters had to cut out the attic and smoke and water damaged everything, she added. "The kitchen is torched."
The family has insurance, but aren't sure yet what they will be able to replace.
Cayou launched an online fundraising campaign on GoFundMe, "House fire they lost everything," to help the family recoup some of what has been destroyed.
Her mom is proud and this isn't easy for her, Cayou said, but her daughter went ahead with the page.
"I am just trying to help her," Cayou said. "They have no clothes — nothing. They have to start over right from scratch."
