Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Silvia Senna

Fire destroys family home

‘We have to keep moving forward’; Pinantan Lake family lost everything in holiday long weekend fire

Dec 28, 2023 | 5:30 PM

PINANTAN LAKE, B.C. — Fred Zenowski and his son James Smallman saw their lives changing in the matter of minutes on the night of December 23. They lost everything they owned when a fire burned down their mobile home and workshop in Pinantan Lake.

“I was making Christmas decorations and I had a propane heater going in here and I think that must have got the roof on fire, you know, heat travels upward. When we saw it, it couldn’t have been more than 10 minutes after that, after I turned that heater on,” told Smallman, explaining how it all started.

Smallman couldn’t save much from the house, but he did save his grandmother’s life.

“I threw on my shoes. I went to the back of the house to grab my grandmother. I put her in a jacket, carried her outside up to my aunt’s house. And then that’s pretty much all you can get out of the house. By then, it was too late,” he said.

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“I had the shirt on my back, what I was wearing, and that was it. There was nothing saved. The kid saved Grandma, which was a good thing. The dogs are okay, kids are okay. The rest is gone,” added Zenowski

Smallman is starting university in January, which became more challenging under the current circumstances.

“It’s just stuff. It really is just stuff. But it was all nice stuff and I got accepted at TRU this year. I’m going in January to get my bachelor of business and this is going to make it a little bit harder but it’s still the plan, so I’m going to figure it out — figure out a way,” Smallman explained.

Aside from losing the family home, Zenowski also lost his ability to earn a living.

“This was supposed to be the paint booth,” he said, showing CFJC Today the wreckage, “and that was my shop where, you know, tools and stuff and I had a bunch of square bodies. This was kind of my retirement plan — just sit and work on everybody’s trucks and build trucks,” he explained. “Still going to be the same plan. But start over and go into the shop knowing you had a ton of tools, like just so much.”

A fundraiser has been created to raise money to help the family start over. Zenowski and Smallman couldn’t be more thankful for the community and their support though this rough time.

“It’s just been kind of overwhelming and all I could really say to everybody is, ‘Thank you. Thank you so much.’ Just more than I ever expected. Of course, I never expected this, but the people have been just great — so many people,” said Zenowski.

For now, the family is still trying to cope.

“I’ve thought every night now about 100 different things that I should have saved. When you start thinking like that, you just have to tell yourself that you did all you could do. And, you know, if I keep living in that moment, it’s just not going to be good for me. I’m just trying to get that out of my head,” said Smallman. “I have people keep telling me I did as much as I could and I’d like to believe that, but it’s tough. I wish I could have saved something else. You know, just one more thing.”

But giving up is not an option.

“I don’t feel that I can’t survive this. I feel like, ‘Okay, well, start over and just carry on.’ And I’m kind of that guy. I’ll be all right. It’s going to work out. It has to. I have no choice. I’ve still got my mom, still looking after her, still got the kids. Everything’s good. I’m fine,” said Zenowski.

“I can’t let it stop me. If we don’t keep pushing forward, keep going, everything that the community is doing for us, everything everybody’s giving us, it’s all for nothing. We have to keep moving forward because that’s the only way. That’s the only thing we can do,” said Smallman.