Guy Martial woke up last Thursday night to discover his house in the abandoned ghost town of Cassiar in northwestern B.C. was on fire.
He grabbed his phone, his rifle and a bag of clothes and with the roof falling in on him he escaped the inferno with minor burns on his arms and neck, but all his other possessions were destroyed in the fire.
The 58-year-old former Prince George resident watched it burn as he snapped a few photos while sitting inside his parked truck in the driveway.
Nadina Zanolini became friends with Martial 23 years ago, not long after he moved to Prince George from Aylmer, Que. He was driving a truck for a living back then and she used to serve him drinks when he dropped by the Tabor Arms Pub.
Martial got into jade mining after he made the move to Cassiar 10 years ago and was featured in the Discovery Channel series Jade Fever. He now works as a roads and highways foreman for Lakes District Maintenance in Jade City and he’s stayed in touch with Zanolini, who gives him a place to stay in her basement whenever he visits Prince George.
When she heard about the fire, Zanolini put the word out of Facebook’s Hell Yeah Prince George site that Martial needed some help getting back on his feet. In typical Prince George fashion, the community has responded with dozens of offers to donate household goods and personal items.
“I’ve got a bed, bedding, a kitchen table and chairs, a washer/dryer, a barbecue, a bunch of food, some work boots, his kitchen stuff,” she said. “He still needs a couple of big things, his propane fridge and a propane oven. All his fishing stuff burned down and he also lost his snowmobile boots and a snowmobile suit. He doesn’t have a propane freezer either.”
Martial is planning a trip to Prince George this weekend and Zanolini is planning a party for him. He’s got a pickup truck and friends with trucks who will get the donations to him.
The fire started in the chimney and rapidly spread through the house. He managed to disconnect his propane tank and save it, as well as his generator, but just about everything else was lost. He had no insurance on the rural property due to the high cost of premiums.
He’s now living in an Atco trailer his company owns and he hopes to start rebuilding his house as soon as he can. His mom has a small pre-fab structure on his property and he's trying to winterize that so he can return to it soon.
Friends in Jade City and Dease Lake started a GoFundMe campaign – A Roof Over Guy Martial’s Head – to help him buy building materials needed to rebuild his house. So far, it’s raised $10,5050 of a $100,000 goal.
“The response has been wonderful,” said Zanolini, who is coordinating the donation effort. “Our community is amazing and a lot of people knew him. He’s a very friendly, loving, kind man who has a very simple blue-collar, give ‘er life. He’s a good man. Being a kind soul, he struck a lot of people in the heart and they want to help out.”
