By David F. Rooney
People are starting to rally together to help Sarah Giesbrecht, the single mom who lost everything in Tuesday’s trailer fire on Oscar Street.
Sarah, known to her Facebook friends as Sarah Loo, was out of town when fire broke out at her trailer in the 1200 block of Oscar Street. She and her children — three teenage boys and a four year old daughter — lost everything in the fire.
But friends and acquaintances are trying to help out.
“Please join us at the Open Mic on a special night this Thursday, January 1, as we try to raise funds for Sarah Giesbrecht and her family,” said the Maritime Kitchen Party’s Steve Smith in an e-mail sent out on Wednesday morning, December 31.
“The fundraiser will be from 9:30 pm to 1 am. We’ll have a donation bucket and will be giving away tickets to the Grizzlies’ game for every donation of $10 or more. Please spread the word and help this family… Not a great way to start 2015, but let’s band together and help them out.”
Others will no doubt also step up to help out.
Meanwhile, the Revelstoke Fire Rescue Service in investigating the cause of the incident.
Firefighters responded to the fire with 29 personnel, two trucks, a water tender, a ladder truck and two command vehicles.
“Upon arrival fire crews quickly attacked the fire from the exterior and shortly thereafter an interior attack team entered the structure looking for occupants of the residence,” Fire Chief Rob Girard said in a statement. “About halfway through that primary search, (we) received information that the owner of the mobile home and her children were not home…. There were no family pets home… other than the family snake that we were unable to recover during the fire.”
Chief Girard said everyone should exercise extreme caution this time of year with the use of space heaters. “Misuse of these appliances can be deadly and disastrous,” he said, adding that every residence should have a working smoke alarm,
