WHEN A HOUSE BURNED DOWN, A WHOLE STREET SHONE BRIGHT
Close to midnight on Nov. 9, fire began to smoulder in a groundfloor wall at 14 Gould St., a narrow, steeply pitched-roof house where the Hill family lived for about 30 years.
The house held three people, including six-year-old Noah, a dog named Daisy, cats George and Izzy, and a couple of turtles with the temporary handles of Jack and Frost. It is the only house Rachel Hill, 26, Noah’s mother, has ever lived in, and that night she was steps away in the heated garage, reorganizing storage.
In the minutes after the smoke detector went off, it all went down in a hurry. Rachel’s father Brian, 66, awoke and fumbled his way through thick smoke from the front bedroom. A sleepy Noah climbed from his top bunk and met Grandpa in the upper hallway. Rachel’s mother Bernadette, 62, who had already risen to investigate the smell of smoke, met everyone on the stairs.
Alerted in the garage, Rachel first called 911 then raced across the street through the cold, snowy air, wearing pyjamas and flip-flops, with Noah in her arms. She proceeded to bang on the front door of the bungalow at number 13, waking Trevor Wilkins, 63, and his wife, Jacqueline LaRoque.
They would be up all night. “We went through so much Nescafé, it was unbelievable,” said Trevor, an engineer entrepreneur “in residence” at uOttawa.
Soon there were about half a dozen fire trucks and a couple of police cruisers on Gould, a tiny street in the Tunney’s Pasture area, now lit up like Times Square. When firefighters punched a hole in the roof, flames were licking right out into the sky and out the front door. By the time it was out, the upper floor of the house was pretty much destroyed.
A fire may start with a spark; recovery needs a thousand raindrops. About a week ago, a sign went up on the Hill property, where the burned out building sits fenced off, Noah’s crayon drawings still taped in the front window: “Thank You, to our neighbours, for your support.”
We forget, don’t we — this being an often terrible world — how good people can be.
Rachel, on behalf of her family, detailed the gratitude on Gould.
St. George’s Catholic School, where Noah attends, was quick to mobilize, eventually looking after the boy’s lunches for 10 days and raising about $3,400 for immediate needs. “The school has been phenomenal,” said Rachel. Friends donated clothing and toys, Lego, a backpack, a new winter coat.
The trio of spots where Rachel used to work — West Park Bowling Lanes, Fil’s Diner and Daniel O’Connell’s (all connected) — put out a bunch of fundraising jars, detailing the calamity. Before long, the total was close to $1,500.
That night, the Salvation Army and Red Cross showed up and bleary-eyed neighbours stepped out into the snow with blankets, jackets, hats. Trevor and Jacquie, meanwhile, made coffee and tea all night long. (It must have been exhausting, Trevor was asked, being up till dawn? “Oh, I just had coffee and went to work.”)
Rachel said food began to show up from all over the place, including a tray of brownies just two days ago. Her parents, meanwhile, stayed with Trevor and Jacquie for four or five nights.
Then came a break. The house next door, which had just been sold, became available for rent for several months. So, late last week, they moved in to number 18. There again, some furniture was donated and the household, though a little spare, is up and running. They hope to use the new few months to decide on a rebuilding plan.
“Everyone on the street has been great,” said Rachel. “The outpouring of generosity has been insane.”
Meanwhile, they count their blessings. A firefighter managed to pull the dog from under a bed, family photos were taken off the wall and stacked safely on a chair, covered with a heavy coat, the aquarium turtles survived. But Rachel says she’s lost or can’t find many treasured things, like photos of her long-gone grandmother, a teddy bear (Pudgie) she’s had since age one, sweaters knit for Noah, old Halloween costumes, favourite articles of clothing. Items left the property by the dumpster.
The neighbour Wilkins, meanwhile, says he was dead asleep when Rachel came banging on the door that night. When he looked over, he saw flames.
“To be honest, you’re just there for them, right? You just think, ‘What would I want?’ ” he said, when asked about what motivated the couple to help. “It’s a really cool neighbourhood. I don’t think there was anybody who didn’t come out and help.”
The transplanted Englishman said, in general, he finds Canadians especially generous. “Do as you would be done by. It’s one of the reasons I love living here.”
So the Hill family has put out their three wise men on the new, temporary lawn next door and mounted the old lighted Santa on the roof. All the charred belongings in the world, all of that dark news, can’t stop the shine of a new day.