Monday, March 8, 2010
Fire in the District

The friendly blue clapboard house across the matching blue railinged creek at 3690 Mountain Highway was built for $8000 in 1951 by Roy and Betty Horne. In the 1960 City Directory Roy is listed as working as a packer (pkr) at Horne Brothers. In 1971 and 1980 Gordon and Arlene Simpson were the owners of the house. Gordon was a teacher in the North Vancouver School District. The final 1990's resident listed in the City Directories is K. Litke, for by 1995 the house was vacant. The house was destined to only have a life of 58 years, for in 2009 fire broke out. The following excerpt from North Shore News article is the story of Jamie Poole, Liza Loranger, and their three year old daughter that were living in the house at the time of the fire.

"Neighbours rally after house fire

Christmas blaze consumes family's possessions

James Weldon, North Shore News

Published: Wednesday, December 30, 2009

WHAT could have been a truly grim Christmas turned out to something else entirely for one North Vancouver family after they lost virtually everything they owned in a fire on Christmas Eve.

Jamie Poole, his new fianc? Liza Loranger and their three-year-old daughter saw their home at 3690 Mountain Hwy. completely consumed by flames Dec. 24, but thanks to the generosity of neighbours and sympathetic strangers, the family had much of what they lost replaced within hours.

Poole, a building contractor who has lived in North Vancouver his entire life, woke just before 8 a.m. to the beeping of a smoke detector. While Loranger got their daughter out of the house, he hurried down to the basement, where he found a spare bedroom filling with smoke and one wall glowing orange. Unable to get to the flames, he raced outside, and began tearing off the shingle siding and then smashing at the wall with an axe in an effort to get at the growing blaze. By the time he had punched a hole big enough for a fire extinguisher, it was already too late.

Firefighters arrived on the scene and told Poole it was too dangerous to re-enter the building. In fact, it was soon too dangerous for them to enter either, and the family was forced to stand by helplessly while almost everything they owned was destroyed.

"All my tools were downstairs in the bin, my hockey gear, my water skis, my snow skis, just everything," said Poole. "The whole bed and bathroom were all fallen into the basement, the TV; everything went down."

As renters with no content insurance, they had no way to replace what they had lost.

"Days go by, me and my girl will sit there and go: 'Oh my God, what about that. Oh my God, what about that,'" said Poole. "You just can't think of all the things that were in there. . . . I lost all the material things that cost money, but my girl lost all the pictures and all (that)."

Poole, dressed in his pajama bottoms at the time, didn't even have a shirt or shoes. Loranger saved little more than her purse, some blankets and her car. The family's Christmas tree and all the presents under it were destroyed.

But even as they watched their home burn, their neighbours were quietly taking action. Bernice Wood, who lives across the street, started spreading word of the family's plight to others, suggesting they bring anything they could to help. Other neighbours took up the cause, and with a boost from the media, the call soon reached the entire community.

"Within three hours of the fire, there was stuff being dropped off," said Wood.

Over the course of the day, friends, neighbours, total strangers came by in droves to drop off whatever they could contribute. Poole's truck, and later Wood's basement, began to fill up with clothing, food, toys, appliances, gift cards, cash -- anything people thought might help.

"My basement on Christmas Eve, you couldn't even move. And now it's completely full again," said Wood.

The family was stunned.

"It was unbelievable, just unbelievable the way everybody has helped us out so much," said Poole.
When the flames had been extinguished, and firefighters were able to enter the gutted home, they found another piece of good fortune in the wreckage: the engagement ring Poole had hidden at the top of their Christmas tree. The box had been scorched, but the ring was untouched. He proposed to Loranger right there in front of the TV cameras.
Loranger said yes.
"I put it on her finger on Global," he said. "She was very happy."..."

Thank you: To the North Shore News and James Weldon for the article published December 30, 2009.

Demolition Permit: Applied for February 2010.
Photo: Taken in February 2010.