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Three fires take toll in Maple Ridge

Two homes destroyed, one badly damaged in separate incidents throughout city
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Fire destroyed a home in Thornhill in Maple Ridge on Friday.

Three separate fires devastated three families last week in Maple Ridge.

“We’re basically just trying to start our life over and trying to hold down our jobs,” said Brianna Needoba who until last Thursday, lived in a house at 125th Avenue and 224th Street.

Needoba along with husband Greg and three kids, had been renting the house for two years. But on Thursday, Nov. 17, at about noon, a fire started in the kitchen.

Maple Ridge firefighters managed to save most of the house but there’s extensive smoke damage and the family has lost all their clothes and furniture. Plus, they’re now fighting with the insurance company.

Maple Ridge Fire Chief Howard Exner said there was a kitchen fire although the cause isn’t known.

The family’s been living in a motel since then, but a friend is willing to put them up in a one-bedroom basement suite for now. A gofundme page has been set up.

The family though is looking for a larger place in what’s a tight rental market.

On Friday, another afternoon fire devastated another family on 98th Avenue in Thornhill.

Exner said the cause isn’t yet known although a neighbour said the resident rushed over to his house saying the stove was on fire. Despite trying to fight it with a fire extinguisher, the house was in flames within minutes.

Exner said there were no injuries but a pet dog and cat were lost in the fire that involved 10 trucks, including two from Mission fire department. “It’s a horrific fire,” said Exner.

“This was a huge fire with lots of dangerous potential to it.”

Theres is no water service in the area so water had to be trucked to the site.

Adding to the danger was a 500-gal oil tank and a 250 -gallon propane tank at the back of the house.

“Those were the priorities. If we couldn’t keep those cool, then we would have had to evacuate the whole area.”

Firefighters however were able to save a work shed nearby.

On Wednesday night at about 8:30 p.m., Todd Sherman, 53, also lost his home, when fire gutted his mobile home in Garibaldi Village on 232nd Street.

The fire started in the kitchen but the cause is unknown. A next door neighbour pulled Sherman out of the home. “It doesn’t take too long for a mobile to go up in flames. They’re sort of like matchsticks.”

He’s now in the process of taking care of the basics such as talking to the insurance company, getting new clothes and finding a place to live and is staying with a friend for now.

But what he’d like to see just as much is his friend, Smokey, his one-year-old grey, short-haired cat, with green eyes, who disappeared during all of the commotion of fighting a fire.

“That’s the most important thing,” he said two days after the blaze.

Firefighters say they didn’t find the cat inside so they assumed he escaped.

But Smokey, who’s barely more than a kitten, is an indoor cat and not used to being outside.

Items have been left outside on the porch along with food and water in the hope of bring Smokey back home.

“All he wants his cat. He calls him his heartbeat and the love of his life,” said friend Lori Morrison.

Sherman said his friends have been helping him out “exponentially.”

Exner said fires seem to come in bunches, for some reason.

And there are no more fires at Christmas time than usual, although the consequences can be more dramatic.

He warned about the dangers of Christmas trees adding to the fire risk. Overloading electrical circuits and lights can also start fires.