By Madison Eldridge ∙ Aug. 6, 2024
Last summer, in the middle of the night, Anthony Seow and his daughter evacuated their house to escape a fire. Now, just over a year later, they move into their reconstructed home.
June 7th, 2023
“It was the typical scene out of a movie,” he said. “We were in bed and at 1am, I get woken up to this frantic pounding.”
“Bang. Bang. Bang.”
“I opened the door and it was this neighbour from across the street. She was yelling my name, ‘Anthony, Anthony, you got to get out.’ As I opened the door and I looked to my right, that house was already fully engulfed.”
“There were flames shooting up through the roof. So, I quickly realized what was going on. I didn’t have to go back upstairs for my daughter. She was right behind me and, at that moment, we got out of the house.”
From across the road, Seow and his daughter stood barefoot, watching the fire as it spread throughout their neighbour’s house, wondering how it would affect their own.
The fire started from the neighbour’s house, climbing over the fence and spreading to the back of Seow’s home. It travelled throughout his kitchen and up the walls to a bathroom located on the second floor.
Thankfully, no one was injured.
The Next Morning
Seow came back the next morning after contacting his insurance company. That’s when he met project manager Brad Taylor.
Going back the next morning, Seow said he didn’t know what to expect since he had never experienced anything like this before. He recalls being worried about the food in his fridge since the electricity had been shut off for hours.
“This is where I connected with Brad because he was very transparent as was the fire department,” Seow said. “They told me, ‘Anthony, we’re so far Beyond that. Everything in the fridge is gone.’”
Once the fire department secured the scene, Seow was able to walk through his house.
“Brad tried to tee me up as best he could about what it would look like in there, but still, no matter what someone says to you, you’re just not prepared,” Seow said. “Of course, you want to see the scope of the damage but at the same time, it’s like ‘What am I looking at?’ It’s crazy holes in walls, water damage and the whole smell of everything. It was a pretty intense situation.”
Asbestos and Smoke
The fire department was able to extinguish the fire in Seow’s home before it spread throughout the entire house. However, they could not prevent the dispersion of smoke and asbestos.
Widely used in houses throughout the 1960s to 1980s, Taylor said asbestos is a microscopic fiber that can lead to mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer, if inhaled.
“In Anthony’s case, in their fire suppression efforts, the fire department broke open a bunch of walls that had asbestos in them, and those asbestos fibers spread through the house,” he said.
As a result of the high volume of asbestos that spread throughout the home, Taylor said, Seow lost at least 95 per cent of his belongings.
“He lost all his personal furniture,” Taylor said. “His couches, his beds, 99 per cent of his clothing disposed of. Camping gear, kitchen appliances, you name it, it was disposed of.”
After a site visit from an engineer, Taylor said he was advised to gut the house down to the studs to abate the asbestos and ensure there was no remaining smoke damage behind the drywall.
Reconstruction
As the repairs began, Seow would visit his home to watch each step of the process.
“You can’t look at the situation as a whole you have to look at it in bite-sized chunks,” Seow said. “Otherwise, you’re just going to be like a deer in the headlights. That’s where Brad has been really helpful with walking me through it.”
Now, with new furniture being delivered and a move in date of Jul. 30 set, Seow and his daughter move back into their new home.
Seow said he and his daughter are excited to be back in their home. He said he is most looking forward to cooking meals in his new kitchen.
“Now that we’re seeing the finish line, it’s like Christmas morning each day we come here because there’s new stuff done and, we are very much looking forward to getting back in,” he said.
After over a year of working with Seow, Taylor said it feels gratifying to help bring Seow and his daughter back home.
“We don’t save lives, we help put them back together,” Taylor said. “From then to now, it’s a rewarding feeling to hand those keys over and put them back into their normal life.”
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