By Jenn Watt
Cammy George isn’t certain what exactly happened on Feb. 14 when her Miners Bay home burned to the ground. Fire investigators are still looking into the cause of the blaze but haven’t made any determination.
The details of the evening are blurry George says but she remembers the smoke detector going off and seeing light. The call went into the fire department around 5 p.m.
She was alone at home with her three dogs – one of which has an auto-immune disorder and is blind.
George was able to get two dogs out of the house but the third was scared by the sound of the alarm and hid.
“When I went back in to get her at that point the smoke was really starting to come” she says. She stayed close to the floor remembering hearing that smoke rises and it was best to stay low.
“Usually she hides under my bed but she wasn’t there” George says. She started yelling for the dog and finally she peeked her head out from the family room. “So I was able to grab her and get her out.”
Extreme cold temperatures which had hit -40ºC during the weekend posed complications.
Minden Hills fire chief Doug Schell told the Minden Times last week that the equipment was affected by the temperatures.
The insurance company told George to expect it to take about a year before a new house can be built. In the meantime she and her 26-year-old daughter Ally and their three dogs are looking for a new place to live.
Currently they’re staying with her daughter’s boyfriend’s family in West Guilford.
George’s cellphone and computer were destroyed in the fire. She is now using a cellphone and computer from her workplace SIRCH but all of her stored contacts are gone.
George says the community has been incredibly supportive offering plenty of help. But at this point she isn’t even sure how people can best assist.
“Everybody wants to know what they can do how they can help. At this point I have no idea” she says.
“Really at this point you don’t know what you need until you go to grab something you don’t have any longer.”