Two women are asking for the public’s help after losing their shared Saanich cabin in a fire last week.
A fire broke out in a one-room wood cabin in the 4300-block of Prospect Lake Road early in the morning on Oct. 23, leaving its two occupants Emma Cardinal and Larissa Kirdeikis, without a home.
Kirdeikis recalls waking up suddenly to the bottom of her bed on fire. “I shot up out of bed to see the bottom of the bed on fire, in a blaze already,” she says.”The whole place was smoked up.”
She and Cardinal got out safely, but it took about 15 minutes for the fire to engulf and destroy the entire cabin, along with every single one of their belongings.
The women started a GoFundMe campaign to help recover some of their losses.
READ ALSO: Victoria man runs into burning house to rescue dog
“Our sweet little cozy home came down in flames in the early hours of Wednesday morning,” the GoFundMe reads. “All of our belongings taken with the blaze. We are physically okay and grateful for each other and the love that we’ve received.”
The fundraiser explains how Cardinal had just arrived from Nova Scotia in the beginning of October while Kirdeikis had called the cabin home for four months. The two lost everything from clothes, glasses, laptops, cameras and phones to the tools they used in their holistic healing practice including Tibetan bowls, aromatherapy diffusers, salt lamps and “countless sentimental belongings.”
Kirdeikis says the aftermath of the fire has been emotionally devastating, despite their shared gratitude at having survived the fast-moving blaze.
“There’s been so many tears but also such love received from everyone around us,” she said. “We’ve felt such love and support and care and we couldn’t be more blessed to have the community that we do currently.”
READ ALSO: Three family dogs perish in Highlands house fire
In the GoFundMe, the women write that they are “reaching out for help in any way to help us get back on our feet again…Unfortunately, we did not have renters insurance on the heritage building that we were living in.”
The GoFundMe campaign has so far raised more than $4,300 of its $20,000 goal.
RELATED: Early morning fire destroys hunting cabin on Prospect Lake Road
