Community comes together to support Charlottetown family displaced by fire
A single mother and her children are living in a Charlottetown hotel after a fire displaced them earlier this month, but a group of volunteers is providing support as Christmas approaches.
Last Thursday morning, Jordyn Hooley was dropping her four-year-old daughter off at daycare "like any other day" when her phone rang.
"I got a call from the fire chief saying the apartment was on fire and asking for me to go there," she said. "I was shocked, completely shocked, completely upset. I didn't know anything. I didn't know how bad it was at that point…
"I went back to the house and it was surrounded with fire trucks everywhere."
No one was home at the time but two cats died in the fire, Hooley said. The cause of the blaze has not yet been determined.
Some of the damage in the children's room at Hooley's apartment is visible in the aftermath of the fire. (Submitted by Jordyn Hooley)
At the scene, fire officials told her there was "major damage" to her home, Hooley said.
"There may be one sentimental thing I may be able to get out of there… my grandmother's dresser. Other than that, everything is destroyed with smoke and water. The kids' room is burned. We lost everything. Just everything is gone," she said.
Other items in the home owned by Hooley's grandmother, who died in 2019, were a total loss, Hooley said.
"That and family pictures — everything is replaceable but that stuff isn't."
Then there were the children's belongings. Hooley also has a nine-year old daughter and her 12-year-old stepson is with her on weekends.
"All of their toys, all of their Christmas gifts, everything they owned is just completely destroyed," she said.
Jordyn Hooley says the family's two cats died in the fire, and her two older children are most upset about that. (Submitted by Jordyn Hooley)
Now Hooley is living out of a hotel in downtown Charlottetown.
"My older kids are more upset about the animals than anything. My youngest doesn't understand at all. She says 'home, home' every once in a while, wanting to go home and I just [don't] know how to explain it to her."
The Canadian Red Cross provided food and personal items including clothing, as well as funding for the first three nights at the hotel. Then Hooley contacted the Emergency Shelter Support Line and now the province is helping to pay for her temporary housing, she said.
Finding a helping hand
The Red Cross also helped connect Hooley with other sources of support in the community.
"I reached out to Johlene Clow from the P.E.I. Helping Hands Group," Hooley said. "She has [gone] above and beyond. She is replacing all my kids' Christmas presents with donations from all over. She's just been amazing, so that is one thing I don't have to worry about."
Some toys have already been collected for Hooley's kids. (Steve Bruce/CBC)
Through an online messaging service, Clow told CBC News the group has raised $700 in cash so far for Dooley's family, and some gifts were donated as well. She intends to deliver it all to Hooley this coming Saturday.
"I have kids too and I can't imagine that happening anytime of year, but especially in December," Clow said, adding the family still needs "a lot of assistance."
It's been really stressful but the kindness has been overwhelming… It just amazes me how Islanders can pull together. — Jordyn Hooley's mother Patti Hooley
Hooley said she has been amazed by the amount of community support she's received.
"It makes me so happy that people care, because it is so much to deal with and it is so much to go through," she said.
"I can't thank them enough. They are making the situation a little less unbearable."
Jordyn Hooley holds a Christmas card with a grocery store gift card inside, donated to her by a member of the community. (Steve Bruce/CBC)
Hooley didn't have tenants' insurance at the time of the fire. Her children wouldn't even have clothes right now if it weren't for members of the community stepping up to help, she said.
"I just don't have the means to replace everything for her... I wish I did, but I don't know where we will come up with that," said Hooley's mother Patti.
"It's been really stressful but the kindness has been overwhelming… It just amazes me how Islanders can pull together."
Hooley has been talking to people at the province's housing department about options for where her family can live, but she doesn't know what her next steps will be.
"I don't think we can go back there," she said of her damaged apartment unit. "So I am trying to find other accommodations for us."
