A Hixon-area couple is struggling to get their lives back in order after a fire burned their home to the ground last Saturday evening.
Bruce Brady was sitting in the hot tub when he heard his dog barking long and loud inside the home - a trailer on a rural property about 15 kilometres north of the community. He went to investigate and discovered thick, black smoke.
The home is located outside the Hixon fire protection area but even then, it was doubtful firefighters could have saved it, it went up so quickly, Brady's stepdaughter, Kristin Bonner, said.
"He was thinking it was a chimney fire but it's really hard to tell because there is nothing left," Bonner said.
"He said he went to where the fireplace normally is and he said there were flames in between the floorboards and he tried putting that out with his fire extinguisher but he didn't stop it so he just got what he could and got out."
Brady and his wife Lorraine, who was in Vancouver at the time, are grandparents to 15 children and were hoping to hold a family get-together at their home over Christmas. Now they're living in Prince George with Bonner and her husband.
The home had been insured up until about two years ago when the insurer told them they needed to upgrade the wiring to get their policy renewed. They were in the process of gathering the material they needed when the fire broke out.
Bonner said the Hixon community has been "amazing" supplying the couple with basic items like clothes and shoes. But they a long way to go - a page has been posted on GoFundMe seeking donations and a fundraising event of some kind is being mulled for February.
