Community support is pouring in after a girl was found dead following a house fire near Gooderham, Ont. last week.
On Oct. 15 around 4:40 a.m. emergency crews responded to a blaze at the home on Glamour Lake Road just north of Gooderham in the Municipality of Highlands East (75 kilometres north of Peterborough).
According to family, three people — the girl’s mother, half-brother, and step-father — managed to get out of the home. Another person who lives at the residence wasn’t home at the time.
However, the girl was unaccounted for.
According to the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal, investigators found a girl’s body later that day among the debris, in the early evening.
Family have identified the victim as 11-year-old Brooke Mullan.
“She was just a vibrant little girl and her life was taken way too early,” Jennifer Wilson, the cousin of Brooke’s mother Linsey Trotter, told Global News Peterborough on Monday.
“No parent ever wants to outlive their child. And she was just a little spitfire. I guess that’s all I can really say to the type of child she was.”
Wilson says the mother is currently in an induced coma at Peterborough Regional Health Centre to help her recover from her smoke-related injuries. Wilson says Trotter’s partner and their three-year-old son are staying with family.
“Ian (Trotter’s partner) sustained multiple injuries to his back along with smoke inhalation and he is our hero and returned multiple times to search (for Brooke),” wrote Trotter’s sister Lacey on a GoFundMe page.
A GoFundMe account with a target of $50,000 has been set up by family and as of Tuesday at 3 p.m., more than $47,000 had been raised.
The $50,000 goal was reached by Tuesday evening.
“The family is so grateful for all of the donations and all of the friends and family and community members that have come together to raise these funds,” said Wilson.
There are also nine drop-off points (listed on the GoFundMePage) in Highlands East, Peterborough, Lakefield, Fenelon Falls, Marmora and Aspley to provide goods to the family who lost everything in the blaze, Wilson noted.
Clothes and prepared meals would be appreciated, Wilson said.
“So that they don’t have to worry about cooking meals while they grieve,” she said. “And pre-paid gift cards are always good for anything … for immediate need.”
The OFM continues to investigate the fire after being called to the scene later that day. Haliburton Highlands OPP have not provided any information on their investigation.
“Basically the entire structure — the majority had been consumed and basically accumulated into the basement, so we were dealing with probably anywhere between two and three feet of debris inside the foundation,” said OFM investigations supervisor Rick Derstroff on Monday.
“So we had to go through all that debris in order to locate the victim, which we were able to locate her I’d say around 5-5:30 on the Thursday evening.”
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.
“It was a difficult fire, a lot of damage. So a lot of information and data to go through,” said Derstroff.
— With files from Jessica Nyznik/Global News Peterborough
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