“It was a part of me”: senior describes heartbreak after losing custom-made home

PENTICTON — Rudi Krause, 79, has spent a decade building his dream home, but this dream has now been shattered more than once.

Yesterday’s early morning blaze burned his custom-made home to the ground.

READ MORE: Home destroyed in early morning fire near Penticton

“It’s very heartbreaking because most of it was handmade,” says Krause. “It’s almost like the lights go out. How can it be? How does it happen?  You have so many things going through your mind and you have no answers for them.”

This is the third time Krause has been hit by fire on his property on Joy Road, off of Carmi Avenue.

The first was the 1994 Garnet fire. He didn’t have a home there at that time, but his hand-planted trees and crops were wiped out.

Eight years ago, he was half-way through building a home, when a suspected arsonist caused it to go up in flames.

Krause says beer cans were found by the debris.

“The police, at the time, said it was either staged or the kids broke in and had a good time.”

But Krause decided to pick up where things left off and for the past seven years, he’s been building his dream home from scratch.

It was this passion that propelled him to more forward when he was suffering from lung disease. His wife says it gave him a reason to wake up in the mornings.

“You need to have something, a goal, something in life to keep you going and that house did for him,” says Edith Krause.

Krause overcame his illness and was looking forward to finally moving into his new home, which was anticipated to happen at the end of this year.

But Krause says he is now leaving this dream behind.

“I think I’m finished with it. Life goes on,” he says.

He suspects someone may have broken into the home because he noticed about $10,000 worth of tools are now missing.

Krause is hoping someone may have noticed suspicious activity between Thursday evening and Friday morning.

If you have any information, you’re asked to call Crime Stoppers.