VERNON – When the Vernon office of the Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation was destroyed by fire this week, social workers scrambled to try to maintain services for their clients.
“They are being looked after,” says local Government Agent Vince Dar.
Three of the displaced social workers have temporarily set up shop at the downtown Service BC office.
“Just to accommodate people that need emergency funds and cheques. Mostly they’re asking people to go on-line to My Self Service or call the 1-800 number,” says Dar. “But some people don’t have computers or phone lines so they’re being forwarded to our office.”
At the new offices of The John Howard Society, they’ve offered some of their spare space to the ministry.
A society spokesperson says the ministry is doing well in dealing with the fire situation.
“We haven’t heard any complaints so far. We’ve been meeting with the ministry, our outreach staff has, so communication to our mutual clients is the same. That’s been very successful thus far,” says Kelly Fehr.
The fire is not considered suspicious but the investigation is still in its infancy.
“Due to the intensity and collapsed roof, it’s taking a long time to do any type of dig out on the building,” says Deputy Fire Chief Jack Bair. “We hope to have a closer look Monday when the other fire investigators come in and we’re able to get machinery in to start picking through the debris.”
Investigators will first try to pin-point exactly where the blaze broke out and then hopefully determine how it started.
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