North Preston fire leaves single mother and 5 young children homeless

DARTMOUTH – There isn’t much left to a home at 31 Clarence St in North Preston, which caught fire around 10:30 a.m. Saturday. The flames tore through the structure and completely gutted it, leaving a single mother of five to pick up the pieces.

“It was an unfortunate incident. This is a woman with five children, and they’re all quite young, I think the oldest is 12 years old and there wasn’t much left for them,” said Dan Bedell of the Canadian Red Cross.

Although the family lost their home and all their belongings, their grandmother Mazie Simmonds says things could have been much worse — she’s just grateful everyone’s alright.

“The material things can be replaced, but if her children had lost their lives in that fire, that cannot be replaced,” she said.

Fire investigators were back at the scene Monday, but because the damage to the home is so extensive, officials say it could take them some time to determine the cause of the fire and where it originated.

Family members told Global News the fire may have started in the clothes dryer. The Canadian Red Cross has been helping the family with emergency lodging, food and clothing for the past three days.

“Our primary concern was just those emergency first few days to get them through to a weekday, when all the government agencies…are open again” added Bedell.

The family is now working with Housing Nova Scotia to get placed in a new home, hopefully by Christmas.

“They would be given priority access to housing that was available…in the area,” said Ed Lake of Housing Nova Scotia.

In the meantime, community members, including the family’s grandmother, are working to help the family get back on their feet before the holiday season.

Simmonds is planning to make wreaths and sell them as a way to raise money for her daughter and her five grandchildren. There’s also talk a benefit that could be held in the coming weeks.

“This is a pretty good community and we’re pretty close, so everybody will definitely pull in and help and do some stuff for her for Christmas.”