A Barrie family has been without a place to live after fire ripped through their Berczy Street home earlier this week, so friends are reaching out to the community to assist the family who helps so many others.
Tuesday evening's blaze sent thick, black smoke into the sky and saw flames shooting from of the home, located between Gunn and Wellington streets.
Inside the home at the time were a woman named Tanya and her daughter, whose last names are being withheld because they are involved with foster care. They made it out safely when two young men banged on the door, alerting them that there was smoke coming from the back of the house.
Sharmaine Ladouceur says she is a close friend to Tanya and her husband, Boyd, as well as their three children, aged seven, eight and 18. Ladouceur said the family is out of the home with no idea when they’ll be back in.
“Well, the upstairs bedrooms are now in the basement,” Ladouceur told BarrieToday.
At the scene earlier this week, Deputy Chief Ed Davis said the fire was unintentional and caused by an electrical problem.
The family lost everything, according to Ladouceur, from all of their clothes to furniture, keepsakes and other belongings.
“The mayor put them up at a local hotel for a couple nights and we are in the process of seeing if any B&Bs will have them at a reduced rate until something more permanent can be figured out,” she said.
A GoFundMe page has been started and in the description it asks for the “Oakley Park community in Barrie to support our local mom Tanya and her husband Boyd and their children with the financial burdens of the house fire that took place on May 30.”
It mentions that most kids in the area go to the Berczy Street home to play and that the family “would help any of us if we were in this situation.”
“Some of us that know Tanya has kids with special needs and she is a PSW," Ladouceur said, "so she's always helping us with advice or any help. She has been there for so many of us in the parenting community, but she is also a foster parent, so she has a foster child there as well.
"She is just always there to help and we feel it's time to help her.”
Ladouceur also said that Boyd not only works at Napoleon, but serves food to people who have been recently released from prison and working their way back into society.
“The family lost everything. There are is just amazing and we need to get them some help,” she said.
The GoFundMe page can be found be clicking here.
