A Port Coquitlam family is reeling after their house burned down while under quarantine in an early-morning fire.
Sheldon and Jen Jaenicke, as well as their two young daughters, lost their Mansfield Crescent home and all their belongings in the blaze Saturday, April 11.
The Port Coquitlam father first noticed something was wrong at around 4:30 a.m., when he was woken while sleeping on the couch by a “crazy, weird noise,” according to Jen Jaenicke’s sister, Adrienne Lloyd.
“He got up, looked to the left and yelled, ‘Oh my god, fire!’” said Lloyd.
The mother came running in, grabbed a phone to call 911, and together both parents ran up stairs to scoop their daughters Avalon, 6, and Xanthe, 21-months-old, from the burning building.
When they came back down, Jen pounded on the floor to warn the downstairs tenant before jumping off the back patio with the rest of the family.
“The tenant downstairs thought it was a bear and yelled, ‘Come in, you’ll be safe here!” said Lloyd.
Very quickly reality set in and the tenant escaped out their back window. Soon the house was engulfed in flames.
“They ran to the front of the house and just saw the house burn,” said Lloyd, who ran to the scene from her nearby house as soon as she heard what had happened.
“It was like a movie,” she added. “You walk up and see a family sitting in a cop car soaking wet with blankets around them.”
As day broke the community around the family quickly started to mobilize, and within hours, a virtual support network sprung up. Tri-Cities Moms Group founder Heather Hooton went to Walmart to buy the family clothes and luggage. Another Facebook group, the Burke Mountain Community group, offered up almond milk for the youngest daughter who suffers from severe allergies. Even the older sister’s school, Leigh Elementary, moved to help — the principal personally called the family and Avalon’s teacher came by to say a “socially distant ‘hello.’”
And while the family is still unsure what sparked the fire, what comes next appears increasingly less daunting as the donations continue to roll in.
“The donations are sitting in our two-car garage. We can’t park. Easter presents, clothes… People are even sharing their toilet paper,” said Lloyd, who has put the family up in a spare bedroom.
By 6 p.m. Saturday, a GoFundMe page set up in the family’s name had already raised over $17,000 of its $30,000 goal.
“The outpouring of love, support, money, food, clothes, etc has been overwhelming!” wrote the Port Coquitlam father in a Facebook post.
“I don't know what we need yet, but thank you for all the offers of help and everything. As we reshape our lives, I am so grateful for all the help extended.”
Even at a time when many are hunkering down in an effort to stem the transmission of the coronavirus — and in so doing help save lives — Lloyd says events like these put what matters in to perspective.
“We hadn’t quarantined together, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take. When your sister calls at 4:30 a.m. in the morning and says her house is on fire?” she said.
“There’s no coronavirus at this point. You support your friends and family.”
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