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Single mom searches for new home after close call in Vic West fire

A Victoria single mother and her son displaced by a fire only hours after moving into their home are once again on the hunt for a place to live.
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Mel Thornton, 34, says returning to the fire-ravaged house on Wilson Street in Vic West “was like walking into a really creepy movie set. The only thing that made it real was the smell.”

A Victoria single mother and her son displaced by a fire only hours after moving into their home are once again on the hunt for a place to live.

Mel Thornton, 34, and her 12-year-old son Stephen had just completed moving into the top floor of a multi-suite house at 515-517 Wilson St. in Vic West on Sunday night when a fire broke out. It started in the basement and flames quickly spread, licking up three sides of the three-storey building.

The three adults and two children in the home escaped uninjured, but several pets died, including two cats and a bird.

When Thornton returned to the building, she made her way through the charred remains to gather her most precious belongings — her grandmother’s jewelry, keepsakes and photographs.

Being in the fire-ravaged house was surreal, she said.

“It was like walking into a really creepy movie set. The only thing that made it real was the smell.”

After the final stages of an exhausting three-day move, Thornton was sound asleep on a futon on the floor when she awoke about 10 p.m. She didn’t hear the fire alarm, but she did hear her son.

“He was shrieking, ‘Mom, mom there’s smoke. We’ve got to get out.’ ”

That saved their lives.

“We came out and there was smoke everywhere. You couldn’t see anything. You had to feel the walls to get out,” Thornton said. “It was less than 10 seconds — it was that quick.”

The fire caused an estimated $600,000 damage to the 1912 house, which is now uninhabitable.

“I’m not the only family in need right now,” Thornton said. “There’s three families in the same boat.”

Thornton fared the best because some of her belongings were still in moving tubs and furthest from the source of the fire.

The others have little left.

Gord Hinds and his 10-year-old daughter, Jadelyn, also can’t move back to their $800-a-month main-floor suite. Hinds returned to the burnt-out house to retrieve his father’s ashes and his daughter’s first tooth.

Also displaced was John Schlitter, on disability assistance, who paid $700 for his basement suite.

The fire started in the area outside his unit. It was too unstable to re-enter.

The fire victims did not have tenants’ insurance. Assisted by the Red Cross, they are staying at the Capital City Centre Hotel.

Thornton, a detox counsellor with the Victoria Youth Empowerment Society, said her top-floor suite had been renovated and rewired after a fire last year. It seemed promising. The rent was $950 before utilities, she said.

“I was so excited. We got all our stuff in and the kid liked it and the pets liked it,” Thornton said. “We were good to go and a couple of hours later, we weren’t.”

Her previous rental home was ridden with mould. Thornton expects it to be a challenge to find a good affordable home on short notice. “Victoria is ridiculous for a single mom or dad or anyone trying to get ahead,” she said.

“I went to look at one place and said I had a job and they said, ‘Oh,’ because they wanted the welfare cheque direct-deposited,” Thornton said.

Russ Godfrey, Victoria’s representative for the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre, said the low vacancy rate and high cost of rent in Victoria make it nearly impossible for families to find good accommodation at a reasonable price.

The cause of the blaze has been narrowed down to an overloaded power cord or smoking materials in the basement, Victoria Fire Lt.-Insp. Brad Sifert said. “It was accidental,” he said.

Sifert said the fire department has set up an account for the victims at Coast Capital that they will manage under the name “515-517 Wilson Street.” Donations can be made at any branch, he said.

ceharnett@timescolonist.com