A St. Clements family is thankful for community support after a fire destroyed their home last week.
Friends had raised more than $7,800 via GoFundMe by Wednesday, a week after the blaze gutted the house of Adrian and Lidia Toma, five children and their backyard chickens.
No one was injured, but damage was estimated at more than $800,000.
On the fundraising side, the St. Clements Paradise and District Lions Club had about 75 donations of clothing, food and giftcards on Saturday, with more still coming in, said club member Mark Koenig.
The cause of the incident is still under investigation, but the blaze is believed to have started in the garage, possibly due to a riding lawnmower.
“Adrian was just mowing his lawn or picking up leaves, parked the vehicle in the garage, closed everything up and went in the shower, and then he was alerted by the kids that the garage was on fire,” said St. Clements district fire chief Brad Dietrich.
“We were getting ready to go to church, and they were waiting for him to be done,” said Lidia, who is from Romania.
“One of my twins, 11, looked through the window while waiting for my husband, and she said to me, ‘Mommy, there’s a fire in the garage,” she added.
“So, I was like, there can’t be a fire in the garage, and she said it again, ‘Mommy, there’s a big fire,’
“The fire is big, and my other daughter was working upstairs in her room, and she came down the stairs, and she said as she opened the front door, ‘Mommy, there is a big fire, we have to exit the house now,’ and when I looked, I was like how can this be happening,” Toma said.
By the time the family of seven found the fire, it was already out of control. She explained: “We could not do anything at this point, only the fire department could.”
“We just ran quickly, but everybody was very helpful.
“The whole community was very helpful because we exited the house as we were inside with no shoes on, just light clothes – and they provided us with jackets and shoes,” Toma said.
“It was very scary, something that you’ll never imagine,” Toma said. “You hear on the news of someone’s house burning, or you witness it – but I never imagined that it could be me one day. I could never imagine it.”
The family escaped on their own, and her husband, Adrian, who called the fire department.
Some 45 firefighters and 10 trucks from Wellesley’s three fire stations responded to the scene shortly after 6 p.m., bringing the fire under control a few hours later.
“Probably within about three hours, we were able to benchmark that we had all the fire out, all the hotspots,” said Dietrich.
The official cause remains under investigation by the Wellesley Fire Department and the Ontario Fire Marshal’s office.
The home, which sold for $1,400,000 in August 2021, according to HouseSigma.com, suffered damages in excess of $800,000, Dietrich added.
He noted that four of the seven family members were inside at the time of the fire; all escaped without injuries, and all the smoke alarms were working in the home.
“We have very good smoke alarms, but there was no smoke inside the house yet, but later on, when the smoke entered the house, they started to beep,” said Toma.
“We’re just happy they got out safely, and hopefully the family can rebuild and move on,” said Dietrich.
“They got a lot of support from the community and their church.”
But amidst of the chaos, Toma noted, the family gathered for a prayer where their son, Joshua, spoke for their final message to keep the fire away from them.
The family has received a lot of support and generosity from the community from around Elmira, Waterloo, Wellesley and St. Clements.
“We are overwhelmed by the kindness that you all showed towards our family,” said Adrian.
“Our words are too small to express how thankful we are for your support and your big generosity.”
