Fire leaves family of seven homeless

SYDNEY — A Cape Breton man whose family of seven lost everything in a fire late Sunday night was simply thankful his wife and their five young children were safe.

“The fire marshal told us, especially with the size of the house, we were lucky that we noticed it when we did or it would have been a different story,” said Shannon Budge.

The fire broke out at 11:40 p.m. at a three-story house at 74 James Street in Whitney Pier. Budge and his wife Michelle Puddicombe were awake on the third floor when suddenly they smelled smoke. Their five children — three daughters ages two, four, and six and two sons ages eight and 10 — were all asleep.

Budge ran out the front door to discover a fire on their front step that carried up the front of the house.

The location where the fire started was under their twoyear-old daughter’s bedroom on the second floor. The two boys were in the room beside it.

“By the time we saw the severity of it, we rushed to get the kids out of the back door,” he said.

Budge left the house barefoot wearing only shorts.

“A gentleman pulled up in a truck, parked next to my house and offered me a pair of pants that were in the backseat of his truck,” he said.

Budge said they were fortunate as the kids were all fine. Sadly they lost their cat and dog in the fire.

The family has been renting the house for more than three years now. The landlord reached out to them Monday as well.

“I feel bad for him too as it was his family home,” Budge said.

Chris March, deputy fire chief for the Cape Breton

Regional Fire Services, said about 10 firefighters from Sydney fire stations No. 1 and No. 2 and a platoon chief responded. March said upon arriving on the scene firefighters noticed a fire on the front steps, which was extinguished pretty quickly.

“Then they noticed it went through the door and into the house,” he said. “There was heavy damage inside but everyone got out okay.”

March confirmed two pets did perish in the fire.

Firefighters remained on the scene until about 1:10 a.m. March said the cause of the fire remains under investigation. He said security was placed on the scene until the deputy fire marshal completes their investigation.

Deputy fire marshal Martyn Payge was on the scene Monday afternoon.

LOST EVERYTHING

Budge believes they lost everything in the fire as they were told there was a lot of smoke and heat damage inside.

“The kids are still processing everything,” he said when asked how his family was doing. “I don’t know if they’ve grasped the severity of it yet. We’ll deal with that as the time goes on.”

Friends have reached out on Facebook appealing for help for the family, including Alison Best. Best posted both boys are in sizes 10-12, the girls wear 7-8, 5-6, 4-5. Puddicombe wears XL and Budge XL-XXL.

Budge said they were overwhelmed with the outpouring of help in less than 12 hours, including clothes for the children. However, Budge said he doesn’t have anywhere to store things yet. The family is staying at Puddicombe’s mother’s house and is not sure where they were going from there.

“I’m asking people to hold on to it for me until we can get straightened away,” he said. “The biggest thing I’ve been telling friends and family reaching out to us is that if we need anything it’s gift cards for Walmart for diapers and for groceries.”

The family had just gone grocery shopping on Sunday. Budge said he made it home with $8 left in his bank account from his paycheque Friday.

“The fridge was full, the cupboards were full, the pantry was full,” he said. “I turned to my wife and said, ‘We’re not really broke, all our bills are paid and there’s food in the house, we don’t really need anything else.”

Budge, who does traffic control for Safety First, said he has talked to his employer and said they’ve been good to him and believes they are going to advance his pay. He said he doesn’t plan on taking any time off, commenting he can’t afford to.

“I do believe they are going to help with my gear for work too,” he said.

Puddicombe has been working from home for a communications service provider as a customer service representative so is unable to work right now.

At one time Budge said they had insurance on their belongings. Puddicombe was working for a call centre at the time that ended up going under.

“We fell behind and that (insurance) wasn’t more or less a necessity and we had other bills to catch up on, so we cancelled it,” he said. “It wasn’t one of our priorities at the time.”

Meanwhile, Budge doesn’t know what could have started the fire and said someone could have set off some fireworks that landed there.

He said his wife and kids are his priority right now.

“I’m leaving that to the investigation,” he said. “They will find out what the cause is if they can.”