Dripping garbage bags of clothes — that’s nearly everything Nancy Zhang has to remember her old home by.
“I’m happy I was able to get [my stuffed animal] today, because I’ve had it since I started university,” she told CityNews.
Zhang is one of more than 100 residents who have been displaced by a massive fire that tore through an apartment complex in Surrey last Sunday.
The Surrey Fire Service said at the time firefighters were called to a four-storey apartment on 101 Avenue and 154 Street around 7 p.m.
“Crews arrived to find heavy fire conditions on the second floor, and the fire had already extended through the third and fourth floors and began traveling down the roof line,” Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Siggs told 1130 NewsRadio, adding that 68 units were damaged.
The unit Zhang shared with her mother was just down the hall from where the fire is believed to have started.
On Thursday, the two went back to see what was left of their home.
“When I did walk in this afternoon, I was kind of in shock at first, I just kind of stood there, not knowing what to do, where to walk,” Zhang explained.
Residents of the building have been critical of the process of reclaiming their personal belongings. They say they’ve been offered 10-minute time slots by their strata management company, hustled in and out, and forced to prioritize their ruined effects in real time.
“There was no sympathy or empathy for the people who are grabbing their stuff and leaving, because how do you expect us to just pack up our entire life in a few garbage bags and call it a day?” Zhang said.
She tells CityNews that while many units were effectively unscathed during the fire, the entire building has been deemed uninhabitable as it remains without electricity and elevator access and sustained significant smoke and water damage.
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“They basically told us they need to cut open the roof of the fourth floor, and also the ceiling of the third floor and redo everything because they’re scared of mold,” she explained.
Some residents are expected to be able to return over the course of the coming months once major utilities get back online, but Zhang and her mother, and others whose units suffered significant damage, believe they may have to wait more than two years until their apartment is repaired.
“When we heard that news, it’s like, okay, now we need to start planning long term. Where is my mom going to live for two years?”
In the meantime, friends have set up a GoFundMe to help them cope with the losses, which they don’t believe insurance will cover. Zhang explains that the unit was under Zhang’s grandfather’s name, who recently passed away suddenly and without a will, leaving them in legal limbo. She says they don’t need much, and anything more than they need, she plans on donating to other residents.
“I feel like the support that I’ve received shouldn’t only be for me and my mom, it should be for the whole community that has been impacted because everyone was deeply impacted by this incident, and no one wanted this to happen.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
