Ready to rebuild
Coldbrook couple overwhelmed by support after house fire
Coldbrook’s Faye and Richard Houghton thankful for community support following devastating February fire
Faye Houghton vividly remembers frantically searching for her phone in a smoke-filled house Feb. 26.
“When I woke up I was laying on my back and I could see all of the smoke everywhere. When I went downstairs, I didn’t know if there would be flames in the kitchen,” she recalled in a recent interview.
“It was too thick of smoke and I couldn’t see anything in there.”
Houghton panicked, fearing flames were soon to follow. And she wasn’t wrong.
“I took the keys to my car and I gave a look back and the flames were high in the air like that,” she said, holding her hand roughly a foot above her head.
She ran to a neighbour’s house wearing a coat, pajamas and her husband’s slippers to call 911. Fire departments were called to respond at around 10 a.m., and arrived to find flames fanning throughout the Harrington Road home.
“I think that God was holding his hands over me — and his angels — because I walked out of that house without a scratch,” she said, noting that an electrical fire broke out in a wall near her stove while she was sleeping.
The severity of the situation started to sink in once she was out of the house. She returned to the scene with her neighbour after calling for help, and noticed the fire had burned through several walls and spread to the roof.
“I had no idea the house was that bad… the house was already gone.”
By April, the charred remains had been cleared away and the spot where the house her husband once built was cleared.
“Everything is just totally gone where you had lived and it just seems like there’s a death and the world moved on without you,” said Houghton.
“It’s a really, really weird feeling but I’m very thankful because I got out safely.”
She has a long list of things she’s thankful for these days, including the firefighters that retrieved the family cat from the burning house.
“The firefighters got her. She was drenched with water. She was hypothermic and she had smoke in her lungs. They gave her oxygen right there at the site, and they took her into the Kentville vets with the lights going and the sirens going,” she said.
“I thought that was awesome.” The list of people to be thankful for grew exponentially following a packed benefit show hosted for the Houghtons at the Aylesford Fire Hall April 15. Family, friends and co-workers rallied around the couple after they lost their home and most of their belongings in the fire.
They’re living in an apartment and planning to rebuild when possible.
“We’re doing well, we’re looking ahead. We’re looking toward the future and we’re not looking back at what we lost,” said Houghton, who stressed that they will always appreciate everything everyone did to help them get back on their feet.
“You have to go on into the future no matter what.”
The fire hall was packed for the freewill offering benefit show featuring a live auction, barbecue, 50/50 draw, bake sale, cake draw and musical entertainment by (Shirley and Mike) Spur of the Moment, Harold Hunt and Make Mine Country and Connie Munroe (Stokes).
“I’m shocked with all of the people that are here. It’s tremendous the turnout that’s here today. The friends and family that have been supporting us has been crazy,” said Richard Houghton, who was away driving a truck in Newfoundland when the fire destroyed their home.
“You couldn’t ask for any more.”