Sleep has been in short supply for Matthew Parker since Friday night’s Grandin Village fire.
He’s been in a hotel room with his girlfriend, Ashley Denton, his 11-year-old football playing son, her 11-year-old football playing son and his 17-year-old daughter, their credit cards spinning almost as fast as his mind when he’s awake in bed at night.
It seems like just as sleep is about to take him, his mind manages to spit out another unanswered question to start his heart racing all over again.
As an independent contractor for a snack food company, Parker gets paid when his truck is on the road.
“As much as I’d like to take time off to figure things out, if I’m not working, I don’t get paid,” he said. “Even today, I was on the phone with so many different people, I did half a day and realized I can’t even work right now. I’m emotionally drained and so swamped.”
Parker’s home was just one of four rendered uninhabitable by a fire Friday, Oct. 25. The residents of all four units hope a GoFundMe online fundraiser can generate at least $20,000 toward their respective recoveries. As of Wednesday morning, $2,835 had been given.
St. Albert Fire Services were dispatched to the Grandin Village townhouse neighbourhood in the city’s southwest at 8:44 p.m. Friday night. The firefighters, 24 from St. Albert and 18 from Edmonton Fire Rescue Services, battled the blaze for more than four hours.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to Everett Cooke, the city’s fire chief and director of emergency services.
“The Fire Investigator anticipates concluding their investigation by the middle of next week,” he said in an email. “Please note that this timeline is subject to change based on the findings of the investigation.”
Like many who hear a fire engine’s siren in the evening, Parker assumed it was going somewhere else when he heard the first truck enter the neighbourhood between 8:30 and 9 p.m. Friday night.
The sirens, from multiple trucks now, were getting louder. Parker opened his front door to see one circling his unit’s cul-de-sac (the hydrant is in the centre).
“Within just a few minutes it was blazing and the firefighters kept coming,” he said. “They said ‘You’ve got two minutes. Get everything you can and get out.’”
Panic sets in as Parker collects his grandfather’s watch and ring. His mind shifts to Ashley’s grandmother’s stereo, a relic from the Second World War, but before he can lay hands on wood floor unit, a firefighter rushes into the room, asks where the attic access is and runs past them.
He returns almost as quickly: “You gotta get out.
“Get out!”
Parker didn’t have time to grab a jacket; he watched, shivering in a t-shirt and shorts as his home was engulfed.
“It still doesn’t even sink in,” he said Tuesday. “We were always thinking we were going to be able to go back in soon.”
The wind had other ideas. Environment Canada’s data shows there was barely a breeze at 4 km/h at that time at the Villeneuve weather station, but in Grandin Village, the wind was strong enough to help drive the fire.
When it shifted, “all hell broke loose.” Parker gives the firefighters credit for containing the fire to the one four-unit structure.
Lives on hold
Parker has owned his townhouse for 15 years, but was renting the unit. He and Ashley moved in themselves a year ago to save up some cash and build toward their dream of moving to a micro-farm in Wabamun.
For now, that plan is on hold.
“We’d been putting every dime together to get this property ready to sell,” he said of the now scorched townhouse. “Our whole lives are on hold, really.”
They’re eager to get back into their place, which is boarded up, fenced off and watched by a security guard, and discover the state of their stuff.
Less things that can be replaced, and more heirlooms like grandma’s stereo, their record collection, or the jerseys the boys had signed by members of the Edmonton Elks after getting to play on the field at Commonwealth Stadium during halftime in September.
“It’s minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour. Where do we go from here? Who do we contact?”
The kids are holding up but strain against times when they would have their own space to return to. Having their Xbox might help a bit.
“That’s when they ask ‘When can we have a house again?’
“That’s the one that’s a punch in the gut every time.”
Parker gives a lot of credit to the Grandin Village community. Neighbours were out in the street handing out coats and blankets, food and other support, helping with pets.
His son’s school, Albert Lacombe Catholic School and Sports Academy, provided some gift cards for essentials. Co-workers dropped off bags of clothing.
“It’s a good community,” so good in fact that Parker can’t even keep up with the offers of support. He said he didn’t realize one fundraiser was held at the St. Albert Legion until after it had happened.
Somehow, there is guilt in his voice.
“I don’t want them to take it personally if I don’t respond,” he said. “We do really need it.”
Ground zero
So, too, does Mike Cockrall, 60, who is couch-surfing at his sister’s place after the fire. His son is staying at his girlfriend’s mother’s place, where their two cats are allowed.
“Where do you go from here? You just start at Ground Zero, right?”
A St. Albertan since 1979, he moved to Grandin Village in 2021. He said the residents of all four burned units are true neighbours, know each other and speak frequently.
“There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for each other,” Cockrall said. “Friday night we all banded together, and we saved all the animals and nobody got hurt. So it was the best of the worst outcome, right?
“It was amazing, because I walked out with a shirt and slippers and the next thing I know I had somebody throwing a jacket on me, and a blanket. And then come Saturday, Sunday, the amount of support on social media was incredible.”
Cockrell said all affected are eager to hear from insurance companies which can take a bit of time, but there’s no chance he’s leaving the community “especially after the amount of support after this weekend.
“I've never seen a better community pull together, you know, with the support that we've with what we've received. (The) GoFundMe is nice, it would really, really help all of us, you know, in the short term.
"We've had a lot of people offer us clothes and stuff like that, but we don't really know exactly what we need right now. Having something to go out and buy what we need would be the best thing.”
Still, the messages of support have been “amazing.
“It's just a total shame. It's a nightmare, but four of us, you know, we'll all persevere,” he said.
“St. Albert rocks.”