By Jill Sperling

Kamloops resident struggles to find housing after apartment fire

May 30, 2018 | 4:48 PM

KAMLOOPS — Around 40 residents of a North Shore apartment building woke up to a nightmare Saturday morning as smoke and flames billowed from the building around 4 a.m.

“The fire alarms are going off and the dogs are freaking out,” said resident Alex McGilvery. “My son is like, ‘we’re all going to die, we have to get out right now,’ and I’m like, ‘have you called 911 yet?’ So I get my phone out and I dial 911 and I look out the window and there’s these flames coming shooting out the wall, just on the other side of the balcony.”

McGilvery quickly gathered a few items before he, his son, and two dogs escaped the blaze through their second-floor balcony. 

“The Emergency Services people showed up, I want to say 8 or 9 in the morning, and took us all over to the sportsplex at McArthur Park, processed us and then got us over to the hotel.”

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Initially, residents of the complex in the 900 block of Tranquille Rd. were provided with 72 hours of commercial lodging. 

“It was apparent that we were going to need a bit more time,” said Emergency Programs Coordinator, Dan Sutherland. “Emergency Management British Columbia leaned very far forward and agreed to another seven days of commercial accomodation for these folks to give them time to find temporary housing solutions.”

Sutherland says a variety of social service agencies were called in to help residents in any way possible. 

“We’re doing everything we can,” he said. “We’re trying to coordinate those efforts throughout the city and to try to assist these people to find some temporary homes while their home is being renovated so they can get back in.” 

Nevertheless, finding temporary accomodations has proven challenging for McGilvery. 

“I have talked to just about every professional landlord (and) property management company in Kamloops trying to find an apartment that I can stay with my son, and my two dogs,” McGilvery said. “One of them is 40 pounds, the other one is about 25 pounds, but as soon as I mention dogs, plural, it’s like, ‘we can’t help you.’”

McGilvery says he was one of only three tenants who had insurance, and says he’s in a better situation than most. But, he’s not willing to go anywhere without his dogs. 

“I’m not going to get rid of my dogs. They’re important to me, they’re part of my family.”