Though she's quick to help others in her career as an educational assistant, Ann Chua is coming to grips with needing some aid herself.
Chua and her partner of roughly a decade, David Sneddon, were woken up on March 30 to a fire in their Larch Street home in Pemberton. Chua suffered burns on her fingers dragging Sneddon out of the house to safety, while he is in Vancouver General Hospital with third-degree burns to 40 per cent of his body.
Without renters' insurance, the couple was left with nothing, though a GoFundMe started by Sneddon's sister, Christy, surpassed its $15,000 goal as of April 6. The fundraiser is online at gofundme.com/f/help-david-and-ann-rebuild-after-the-fire.
"I don't want the attention, but asking for help is, I think, necessary," she said through tears during an April 5 interview.
With so much still unknown about Sneddon's condition, Chua said it's difficult to anticipate what they will require in the future.
"There's so much that we need to take care of right now. It's hard," Chua said. "Right now, I can't make long-term plans because I don't know what [Sneddon's] injuries are. I know it will change everything for us.
"Right now, we just want him to get better."
Chua is trying to take the situation "one day at a time," as Sneddon, a chef, recovers.
"It's just deep, deep sadness for me right now about everything that happened," she said.
Chua said in addition to having the fundraiser, she has received messages of support from her workplace and the community at large.
Christy Sneddon said she and the rest of David's family, including his 25-year-old daughter, are trying their best to support Chua from Toronto with no way of safely travelling to be here in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christy said it's frustrating and upsetting to be away from the family at such a difficult time, so it was important to try to set up online support for the pair. However, she doesn't spend much time on social media and was unsure of whether it would reach a wide audience. Within days, however, it surpassed its initial goal.
"It was one of my only options to help," she said. "Before I knew it, it was all over the place and everyone was stepping up to help."
Christy said her brother underwent his first grafting surgery, taking care of his arms and upper body, on April 2.
"He was very unstable coming out of that. Friday was a bit of a tough day," she said on April 6. "The weekend was basically a holding pattern, just hoping nothing went wrong, and nothing did."
Homeowner Diane Rothdram, whose family lived in the upper section of the house, recalled being woken up but confused about what was happening, thinking the noise was heavy rain outdoors.
Once she understood what was going on, however, she roused her children, aged 10 and 11. The front door was a "wall of flames," Rothdram said, but she and her family were able to escape through the garage.
Husband Mike went back inside to retrieve the family dog, grabbing a fire extinguisher and spraying the side of the house when he came back outside. At the same time, he tried to alert Chua and Sneddon.
"Our next-door neighbour, who works for the Whistler Fire Hall, found Dave on the grass and Ann, our tenant, was out on the grass as well," she said.
Rothdram said paramedics came to take Sneddon away quickly.
Emergency Medical Services arrived quickly, Rothdram said, and there was already a dog-friendly room set up for them at the Pemberton Valley Lodge.
After posting to Facebook to let the community know the situation and to try to secure a new residence, Rothdram estimated the family received 30 offers of places to stay, and it appears that they've found a new three-bedroom home.
Rothdram, still working as the general manager at Dubh Linn Gate Irish Pub, said Mike was still on payroll at Blackcomb Glass at the time of the fire, so they hadn't felt major financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She credits her children for holding up well in the face of several stressful situations all at once.
"Every once in a while, they'll realize something else that they've lost and they'll tear up a little bit, but all of us are more grateful than anything else because it was a pretty extreme event and it could have just been so different for us," she said.
Rothdram was also thankful to the firefighters and paramedics who helped out, as well as to the community for rallying around them and their tenants.
"Pemberton is incredible," she said.
Village of Pemberton deputy fire chief Cameron Adams described the house as "a total loss," noting that the blaze took roughly six-and-a-half hours to extinguish after crews initially responded at 12:49 a.m.
"It was definitely a tough fire to fight and with it being fully involved by the time it was called in, the crew did an amazing job with what they were faced with," he said, adding, "It's unclear how it started."
