A Penticton mother has lost her home and most of her belongings after a fire gutted her house on Saturday evening.
READ MORE: Penticton home destroyed in large fire
There were no injuries, but Shelby Phipps said she lost many of her belongings.
“Everything I’ve worked for in my childhood home was gone, I was born and raised there,” Phipps said.
While the cause is still unknown, there’s no reason to believe the fire is suspicious, according to the Penticton Fire Department.
Phipps has a three-month-old daughter; she said she lived at the home on Valleyview Road with her baby and her father.
Pipps and her daughter weren’t home at the time of the fire and she said her father, who was home at the time, managed to make it out safely.
She said a silver lining is having her only brother, who lives in Alberta, by her side during this difficult time.
“Shelby didn’t want me to come but I knew it’s better to be here so I didn’t tell her and I came to surprise her,” Phipps’s brother Justin Leclerc said.
The siblings worry they may have lost some of the most sentimental reminders they have of their mother.
“Our mom passed away about 15 years ago and her wedding dress, her pictures and everything… were in there,” Phipps said.
She said knowing everyone is safe is a break in the clouds, helping her look at the bright side of a dark situation.
A Go Fund Me page has been set up to help the family.
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