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THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2015
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Single mom lost everything in fire
Samantha WRIGHT ALLEN Citizen staff sallen@pgcitizen.ca
Tessa Morgan was at work Monday morning when a friend called to say that her home was in flames.
“I had a panic attack,” said Morgan, a single mother who lives with her two young kids. “I sat on the floor and cried for awhile.”
But soon, the 28-year-old was getting a ride towards the trailer she’d been renting for almost two years on Dawson Road in the Hart Highway area.
By the time she got there, the fire was out. Prince George Fire Rescue said crews from three halls fought heavy smoke coming from the structure, quickly saw the flames were from the kitchen and quelled them.
It called the fire damage in the kitchen “extensive” with significant smoke and heat damage throughout, estimating the loss was $30,000. No one was home and no one was injured.
Firefighters let Morgan in briefly Monday, but she barely remem bers what it looked like.
“Black, everywhere,” she said. “It was really hard to breathe so we couldn’t be in there long. It gave me an instant headache.”
Two days after and Mor gan still seems dazed by her loss.
“I should have had insurance, I’m an insurance broker but because it’s a trailer I can’t do monthly payments, I’ve looked into it. It was like $600 (for the year). I’m a single mom with two kids,” said Morgan, adding her job pays her about $14 an hour.
She doesn’t know how the fire started.
“I was cooking, but I shut it off, she said.
“It has been giving me problems lately, but it’s an old, old trailer so you never know.
“It just sucks that I didn’t have insurance,” said Morgan, standing in a room by her father’s shop with a pile of things she managed to salvage: plastic containers hold smoky clothes, CDs fill ziplock bags and a pink piece of luggage is stacked off to the side. For the most part, the shop feels empty.
In the back, Morgan is airing out a new dresser she’s hoping will lose its smell so she can keep it.
“It’s not going to be easy to replace it,” said Morgan, adding she worked hard and bought everything in that home on her own. For now, she said it’ll be the bare necessities.
“I don’t have a job where I can just go out and buy something.”
Friends have organized a fundraiser for her Saturday and the Hell Yeah Prince George Facebook page has been a valuable tool.
What does she need? Thinking,
Morgan started listing bathroom, bedroom and kitchen items, toys for her kids. She stopped.
“I don’t even know. Pretty much everything.”
Morgan’s best friend Megan Goertzen said it’s been tough watching her friend go through the last few days.
“It was absolutely devastating,” she said.
“We’re going to go in there and try and salvage
as much as we can.”
It likely won’t be much, but she said the community has been such a big help donating important items like couches, tables, beds and clothes for the kids, which were mostly destroyed.
“It’s absolutely emotionally overwhelming and amazing.
I couldn’t even thank everybody enough for what they’re doing for her,” Goertzen said.
“We’re just trying to get her back on her feet because everything she lost was years and years of things that she bought for herself and her kids.”
Morgan is trying to shield the tragedy from her son, who turned three Thursday, and her seven j' year-old daughter, who is still at her father’s house.
“I don’t want her to be too affected by it,” said Morgan, who with Goert-zen’s help has a place to live in mid-September but will likely be moving among friends houses until then.
“She doesn’t have any of her toys. She’s going to notice that,” Morgan said. “(The kids will) know but it’s more like ‘Hey we’re moving into a new place.’”
Goertzen said any help the community can offer will make a difference.
“Tessa has the absolute biggest heart. She is an amazing person. She’s so outgoing, and fun loving. She would do the same that everybody’s doing for her for anyone else.” The fundraiser starts at 5 p.m. Saturday at Nelly’s Pub or people can donate online at pgc.cc/1 Wkvoq6 or reach out through the Facebook event called ✓ Fundraiser for
Tessa Morgan.
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