When she heard that it was a cigarette butt left burning on a balcony that destroyed her home in a 106-unit Edmonton condo, Evelyn Steinhauer had to shake her head. “My first reaction (was), ‘I hope that damn cigarette was good,'&” she said.
When she heard that it was a cigarette butt left burning on a balcony that destroyed her home in a 106-unit Edmonton condo, Evelyn Steinhauer had to shake her head.
“My first reaction (was), ‘I hope that damn cigarette was good,'&” she said. The butt was discarded into a container with diapers, igniting flames that spread along the top floor of the four-storey building. The May 22 fire affected Steinhauer, a Saddle Lake band member, and what she guessed would be at least 200 other people, including at least a few others who are from the local area.
“When this happened on the weekend, it's a sense of loss you can't explain. It's more of a sense of displacement,&” she said, after a week of driving back and forth from her other property in Bellis to the city, trying to salvage a few items from her condo, teaching classes, and calling the bank and sorting out insurance.
Steinhauer, an associate professor in the University of Alberta's faculty of education, had been renting in the city for several years, and only just bought the condo last May.
“It was really nice to have a newer condo - it was built in 2007. It was a nice location, very comfortable,&” she said.
On the Friday of the fire, she had just got home from the university and was packing a few things to go back to Bellis with her fianc é when the fire alarm went off.
She would have liked to pack a few more items, so she suggested to her fianc é they should go to the mall and come back. “The fire alarms were so intense in the bedroom so I just said, ‘Let's go.'&”
The panic in the hallways indicated that something more was amiss, as she recalled that people were running and screaming in the corridors, “Get the hell out of here. Get out!&”
She and her fianc é came out of her first floor apartment to their vehicle, and she could see the flames and smoke pouring out of the fourth floor.
“My fianc é has extreme chronic bronchitis, and he's going into panic,&” she said, recalling he told her, “We've got to get out of here or we're going to get stuck.&”
By the time they got to the nearby mall, they could smell the smoke from the fire, which would end up destroying most of the building, and causing an estimated $16.3 million of damage. Steinhauer notes all of her furniture, about $8,000 in Aboriginal artwork, and most of her personal items were write-offs, destroyed from smoke and water damage.
Now she is bracing herself to have to rent for a couple of years while the condo is rebuilt, all while continuing to pay her mortgage on her condo and her property in Bellis, plus her vehicle payments.
“Honest to God, I'm in debt up to my ears,&” she said. However, she notes that the situation could have been worse had she not got a call from her insurance broker in St. Paul reminding her about taking out insurance to which she responded by getting minimal coverage.
Steinhauer's friends have come out to support her, starting with fundraising to help her pay rent through http://www.gofundme.com/evelynfirefund. In two days last week, 16 people had raised $1,450.
Shannon Houle, one of the people supporting the fund, was thrilled by its progress, saying, “Each day is a miracle in the making, by people who care unconditionally.&”
“I feel emotional about that,&” said Steinhauer. “I like to give, I have a hard time receiving.&”
However, she said one of her friends said something that spoke to her. The friend pointed out the number of students that have taken the Masters of Education program through Blue Quills First Nations College, a program which Steinhauer helped bring to the college.
“Look at how many lives you changed. Just accept it - this is not about you,&” Steinhauer recalled her friend told her, adding, “I'm so fortunate.&”
Her colleagues have also been supportive, and just the other day, one went out and bought her a set of pants and a couple of tops, which she ended up wearing the next day.
“It's been so overwhelming,&” she said. “I feel I have to give back.&”
