Refugee family escapes Charlottetown fire
Last Updated: Friday, November 20, 2009 | 7:09 PM AT
CBC News
It could be up to eight weeks before a refugee family can move back in to their smoke-damaged duplex. (CBC)A refugee family of nine from Colombia is temporarily homeless and don't know where they'll be spending their first Canadian Christmas after a fire at a Charlottetown duplex Friday morning.
Smoke was billowing from the upper-floor windows of the Edward Street building when firefighters arrived shortly before 10 a.m., Chief Moe Sherry said.
The mother and three pre-school-aged children who were home at the time escaped uninjured, after hearing the smoke detector go off, he said.
The other five children were at school.
Fire officials believe a bedside light was left on and was touching some bedding, which caught on fire.
"It appears that the fire started up in a rear bedroom, and it went from, it looks like, an electrical source into the beds; and then it had like a flare up, then she kinda went into a smouldering stage and that's when we got to it to knock it down," Sherry said.
"So it's mostly smoke damage upstairs, all over the upstairs."
The mother and her eight children, who range in age from 2½ months to 14 years, only arrived from Colombia seven months ago and have lost most of what little they had.
The family has been put up at a hotel by the Red Cross, and given emergency food and clothing.
But it could be up to eight weeks before the family can move back home.
St. Pius the Tenth, the church that sponsors the family, is trying to find a place for them to live, said spokeswoman Catherine Mullally.
