Fellow fire victim helps family
Ottawa real estate agent starts campaign to aid man, four children
An Ottawa real estate agent who lost everything last year in a fire has launched a fundraising campaign to help a family of five who went through the same ordeal on Tuesday.
Kristen Foster started a trust fund to help Kenneth Newberry and his four children — ages nine, 14, 18 and 20 — replace their belongings and find a place to live.
Without home insurance, Newberry doesn’t know where his family will sleep this weekend after the threeday hotel stay arranged by the Canadian Red Cross comes to and end on Friday.
Neither Newberry nor any of his children were injured in the fire, which broke out around 10:40 a.m. at the family’s apartment at 525 Bronson Ave. when his 18-year-old son, Nicholas McGrath, was cooking french fries.
Newberry and McGrath managed to escape the apartment without injuries. The three other children were not home at the time.
When Newberry realized the dogs were still in the burning apartment, he tried to go back inside for them.
“It was just impossible,” Newberry said. “It went up so fast.”
Firefighters brought two dogs out of the apartment, but only one survived.
Paramedics gave oxygen to Marley, a black lab-pit bull mix dog, and rubbed its chest to promote breathing.
Newberry said Marley was recovering at the Ottawa Humane Society Thursday but she was vomiting, had sores in her mouth and refused to eat.
“I don’t think she’ll be able to survive,” Newberry said.
The family’s second dog, a seven-year-old west highland terrier named Minnie Pearl, could not be saved.
Foster didn’t lose any pets, but she knows all too well the feeling of loss after her Orléans home was destroyed by fire on May 3, 2012, due to a faulty stove.
The only thing that was saved was a Spider-Man pillow belonging to Foster’s son.
Foster had homeowners’ insurance to replace everything that was destroyed.
“It was quite devastating,” Foster said. “It’s really traumatizing, but now I can look back at it and say, ‘It could have been much worse.’”
Newberry said the most important thing was that his children were not hurt.
Still, the family was grappling with the fact that they have lost everything in their apartment and don’t have insurance.
“All of our pictures, everything is gone. Everything,” Newberry said. “It’s overwhelming. Just trying to hold on to my feelings and not break down.”
The fire hit close to home for Foster, too — it occurred just down the street from her real estate office.
“Anybody who experiences a fire is in the same boat,” Foster said. “Literally, they have one night left in a hotel and they have nowhere to go.”
Donations can be made to the Newberry family at TD Canada Trust branch 3316 to account No. 6065711.
All Keller Williams Realty offices in the Ottawa area are also accepting donations.