Dog saves the day for NOTL family
Donations pour in for former volunteer of the year award recipient who lost all in Sunday blaze
Rachel Spiewak awoke to the frantic barking of her dog in the wee-hours Sunday morning.
“Tucker, quiet!” she scolded the six-year-old shepherd-cross, worried he would wake her twoyear-old son.
But as she began drifting back to sleep at about 1:30 a.m., Tucker again started barking and growling.
“He literally jumped on my bed and started scratching at me and barking,” Spiewak said.
There was clearly something wrong.
Her boyfriend Jason Chafe climbed out of bed to investigate, and as he opened the bedroom door bright flickering light flooded into the room.
“Rachel, there’s a fire!” he shouted.
Spiewak was still too drowsy to grasp the seriousness of the situation.
“I said, ‘Where, down the road?’” she recalled. “He said, ‘No, Rachel, there’s a fire in your house. You need to get the baby and get out of this house.’”
That woke her up.
“The garage was gone, and the fire was coming in through the front of our home,” she said.
As the fire alarm finally started to ring, Spiewak and Chafe were already running to the door along with two children who were home. Spiewak’s two older children were staying with their father at the time.
Moments later, while standing safely on the side of Annmarie Drive, Spiewak said she watched as the flames engulfed her entire house making it clear how little time they had to escape.
She said the fire alarm likely didn’t activate immediately, “because the fire started outside and the smoke wasn’t in the home yet.”
And by the time the fire did make its way into the house, she said, flames were so intense that it’s unlikely anyone would have escaped if it hadn’t been for Tucker — her “saving grace” and “complete hero.”
Her neighbour, Amanda Fretz, said she and her husband awoke to a loud noise, as a bright orange glow spilled into their bedroom through the window.
“It happened so fast,” Fretz said. “I still can’t believe it happened. It’s one of those things you watch on TV, but It just was surreal to actually live it.”
They awoke their two children and got them outside to safety, as she called 911.
Fretz said the exterior of her home sustained extensive damage due to the heat shattering windows, peeling vinyl siding away and scorching the plywood below. Although the flames did not penetrate the walls, the interior still sustained smoke and water damage.
“Everyone got out alive and everyone’s safe. No one was injured and that’s what matters,” she said.
In the aftermath of the fire, the residents have been overwhelmed by the community’s support.
Spiewak’s friend Teri Andrusiw launched a GoFundMe website — https://bit.ly/2ph9aeE — to help Spiewak. As of Monday afternoon, $1,870 had been raised.
Andrusiw described Spiewak as a “giving, kind person.”
“She would give her shirt off her back for anybody. … I was thinking I have to do something about this,” she said. “She has nothing.”
Spiewak’s generosity earned her a volunteer of the year award from the town of Niagara-on-theLake in 2012.
Andrusiw said people initially started donating clothing for the family, but others contacted her wanting to donate money, too.
Spiewak, a photographer, also lost her equipment in the fire, making her unable to work.
Andrusiw said local businesses have been pitching in, too, offering free meals and collecting donations for the family.
“It’s rippling out. It’s kind of crazy, but we’re making it a little bit easier for them.”
On Facebook, Spiewak described the generosity as an “outpouring of love … beyond what I can ever imagine.”
“I could never possibly thank each and everyone individually in this moment. My boys are safe. I am safe.
“Our Tucker is safe and really that’s all that matters.
People have offered to help Fretz, too, but she has been referring them to Spiewak.
“I’ve been telling everyone, ‘We’re fine. We don’t need anything.’ It’s inconvenient and it’ll be a few months of renos, but they have nothing,” she said, gesturing to the charred ruins next door.
“These people need help, not us.”