Seven people were left homeless after a morning fire tore through an apartment building on lower Fourth Avenue.
Randy Thoen, Fire Prevention/Inspection Officer with the Port Alberni Fire Department, said the emergency call came into the fire department just before 9 a.m. Friday, July 26. The fire destroyed an upper floor apartment at the back of the eight-unit building and spread partway down a hallway. The other seven units in the building are uninhabitable due to heavy smoke and water damage.
All residents escaped without injury and were put up in a local motel in the care of Emergency Social Services.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The Kuu-us Crisis Society has reached out to the fire victims to offer a variety of services, and are accepting donations at their facility on the corner of Adelaide St. and Johnston Road.
The society keeps a supply of donated goods on hand to give to the needy. For this reason, they say that no clothes are needed for the seven displaced adults.
Elia Nicholson, spokesperson for Kuu-us, said the fire victim have very specific needs.
“We are looking for dishes, cups, bowls, bedding, pillows, tables, chairs and couch sets,” she said, adding The Brick furniture store has generously donated beds. She said small appliances, cutlery, pots and pans would also be needed.
Wally Samuel Sr. went to the apartment four days after the fire where he met some of the victims. One was crying.
“I offered them five mattresses I had in storage and one of the young men came with me to help move the mattresses,” he said.
The mattresses were originally donated to Ahousaht’s Chah Chum Hii Yup Tiicmis (Holistic Centre) program for use at Mahtsquiaht (former Kakawis) by the Travelodge in Nanaimo.
“We have youth summer camps there and retreats but we didn’t need all the donated mattresses so I put them in storage and have been giving them away here and there,” said Samuel.
Donations to the fire victims can be dropped off at 4589 Adelaide Street from Monday to Friday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Kuu-us cannot pick up donated items.
The Kuu-us Crisis Society is also accepting donations of school supplies for children.
“When the kids are getting ready to go back to school we hand out free, donated clothing and school supplies to those in need,” said Nicholson.
The Fourth Avenue building, according to the PAFD, has been turned over to the property owner, Paul Saroya, and his insurance adjuster.
Saroya also owns the Beaufort Hotel which, according to the PAFD, was damaged by fire in fall 2012 when a residential unit went up in flames.
Prior to that, an adjacent Saroya-owned building across the street from the Beaufort Hotel also caught fire. The tenants from that building relocated and the building was subsequently torn down.
There is a second apartment building, also owned by Saroya, sitting next door to the Fourth Avenue burnt building. It escaped damage from the fire and Saroya has offered up vacant apartments in that building to his displaced tenants.
Two other tenants have turned to the Kuu-us Crisis Society for assistance in finding new homes and another two tenants declined assistance.
