Penticton taxi driver loses belongings in fire

Fundraising efforts are underway to support a Penticton taxi driver who lost all of his belongings in a fire Saturday night.

READ MORE: Penticton fire damages apartment

Robert Emms rented the carriage home above a workshop situated near Forestbrook Drive and Kilwinning Street.

Penticton Fire and Rescue said they received calls of heavy smoke billowing from the windows at around 11:00 p.m.

“We proceeded to go in through the first floor, knock down the fire on the first floor, there is a suite on the second floor and part of the floor had collapsed, nobody inside which is a good thing,” deputy fire chief Chris Forster said Saturday evening.

Not knowing at the time if anyone was caught inside, neighbours scrambled to make sure everyone was accounted for.

“I started yelling ‘fire!’ and I kicked in the other door and I guess with the owner’s son we actually got up into it… it was just too much flame and smoke and we came back down,” neighbour Chris Stayko said.

Emms was driving his taxi during the Saturday night rush when he got the devastating news.

“I got a message at about quarter after 11 p.m. on my computer in the cab to go home, there was a fire,” he said.

“It’s brutal to look at…everything I had up there was gone.”

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Fundraising efforts are underway to support Emms; he did not have tenant insurance.

“I started the GoFundMe page because he has nothing, I mean you don’t have a tooth brush, you don’t have underwear, you have nothing,” Emm’s friend, Amy O’Donovan said.

Ems said he is trying to stay level headed, and even returned to work the next day.

A fire investigator is on scene combing through the wreckage in an attempt to determine the cause. Early indications are that the fire was accidental.